


Danganronpa Forever! - Ultimate Extravaganza Killing

by ZZZangan



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Anxiety, Canon Trans Character, F/F, F/M, Fan Danganronpa, Fanganronpa, M/M, Original Character(s), Trans Male Character, potential v3 spoilers?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2019-08-08 05:16:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,981
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16423109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZZZangan/pseuds/ZZZangan
Summary: “Are you a fan of vintage Japanese media and need your fix of intricately morbid teen violence? Well the brilliant minds of Team Danganronpa USA have got you covered! Marvel as your enigmatic host takes you through gut-wrenching murder, heartbreaking betrayal, and perhaps even some unexpected romance??? Anything can happen here, baby! And it’s all topped off by the wicked, off-the-wall executions that you never knew you missed! Who will live? Who will die? How are we getting past the authorities? All these questions (might) be answered when our first episode goes live this Saturday night! We hope to see you there, whoever you may be…”





	1. Prologue - Welcome To The Show, We Sincerely Hope You Enjoy Your Stay

When Eric Castle woke up to find himself in a quaint, neat little room he had never seen before in his entire life, he couldn’t say in earnest that he was completely surprised.

Well, of course it was somewhat of a surprise. His memories were somewhat foggy upon awakening, but he definitely did remember going to sleep in his bed the previous night, with the expectation of waking up in that same bed. However, being set up for some kind of stunt like this? Given his field of expertise, it… vaguely made sense to him. 

But if he were being set up for a stunt, he figured it wouldn’t be in just a plain, well-kept bedroom, wouldn’t it? No, that wasn’t right. He was sure, that wasn’t right at all... oh, wait. He realized that he had woken up in his uniform. Navy sweater vest, white suit shirt, dark blue dress pants. Yep, this was definitely a set-up. No doubt about it. Even as Eric was still processing this realization, his body jolted itself up and sent his mind racing to find a way to escape, his eyes darting from corner to corner of the room under his fluffy mess of brown locks and caramel streaks, aiming to decipher this impossibly intricate scheme that most certainly lay before him. 

The first, most logical explanation was that, obviously, there was a trap door exit under the bed. So he tried to push it. Then he tried again. Then he tried again.

Oof, okay. That wasn’t it. The hardwood bed stand could’ve been bolted directly into the floor and he would’ve been none the wiser. Hmm, alright. He’d have to use some other way to get out then… like…

Like the door. The door right in the front of the room. The door that he was staring face to face with. Was it always there? Of course it was always there. How could it not have been always there. It’s a door. That door. 

But it couldn’t be that simple right? No, it couldn’t. Not at all. There had to be, like, some sort of a key for it hidden somewhere, perhaps under the curious nightstand sat by his bed, or behind the wide mirror on his front wall, or … under the floorboards, perhaps? No, no, the floor was carpet. Hmm. As he contemplated, Eric slowly walked up close to the door, and as his hand, without conscious thought, reached out to turn the knob-

And then Eric Castle fell out of his room, face first onto the floor, and found himself in a thin, dimly lit hallway. 

Having been left utterly dazed, shocked, and flabbergasted by the occurrence of a door performing the one function it was primarily designed to do, Eric was barely able to get back on his feet when he jumped at the sound of a loud “Aha!” 

From the other end of the hall, a short figure whipped around to face Eric, and then immediately dashed towards him. She had neck length black hair that, near the bottom, jutted out to the sides like spikes. Her skin was pale white, and she wore a slightly tan light brown t shirt with white sleeves sticking out from underneath. Beige cargo pants with an unruly amount of wrinkles were held up by a pair of leather belts that had gratuitous amount of pockets and pins for items that weren’t there, and she wore thick black boots that practically went up to her knees. She was staring directly at Eric with an ecstatic grin. 

“Finally!” she exclaimed. “You’re up!” _God_ , she was loud.

Eric blinked. “Have you just been, uh, waiting outside here for me to wake up?” He asked.

“Yes!” The girl responded. 

“Ah, I see…” Eric haphazardly brushed his fluffy mass of hair to the side. Despite this woman’s undeniable, intransigent presence, he was still only beginning to process the fact that there was another human being here, _looking_ at him right now. He figured that whatever he was doing was… _almost_ a look, though. “Do you have any idea where we are exactly?”

“Hmm, no, none of us really do!” The girl shook her head.

“That’s nice.” Eric sighed. Wait. ‘None of _us_?’ That meant there were more people here. Obviously there were more people here. Wherever they were. He’d figure that out later probably. Yeah. He would. But-

“How many people are here?” Eric asked, thankfully stopping his train of thought from travelling the bumpy road ahead.

“Right now there’s fourteen, including us!” The girl said. “I think there’s one fella who still hasn’t woken up yet though.”

“I see.” Eric nodded. “Well, I guess I might as well introduce myself, I’m Eric-”

“Oh! Oh oh oh! I know!” The girl’s face suddenly lit up, somehow becoming louder than she was. Ow. **“You’re Eric Castle! The Ultimate Escape Artist!** ”

Eric’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, befuddled by the series of words he just heard. “Ahem, yeah, that’s me, but… Ultimate?” He chuckled awkwardly. “What does that even mean?”

“Haven’t you heard of the Ultimate Forums?” The girl asked, leaning her head to the side. “You HAVE to have seen it! It’s a super popular website where you can learn about the most talented young people in the world today! There are some really good reads on there, you should check it out! It’s epic!”

Struggling to understand anything he just heard other than the use of the term “epic,” Eric contemplated. “So, like, people were sharing my information on some internet forum I’ve never heard of?” He took a deep breath. “Okaaay, yeah, not gonna lie, that’s some real creepy shit. Kinda wish I knew about that before.”

“Ah, I see!” The girl nodded. Eric wasn’t quite sure she did. “Well, everyone here seems to be an Ultimate decided by the forums, and that seems to be significant… Unless it isn’t, but it probably is, right? Yeah, it probably is.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Eric said, nodding half-heartedly. He considered, for a brief moment, using his last functioning brain cell to try and understand what “Ultimate” even meant, but that was cut off by another abrasively loud “Oh!” 

“What.” Eric said.

“I just remembered that I haven’t even introduced myself yet! Haha, whoops!” The small girl smacked her forehead, and cleared her throat. **“My name is Sora Oshiro, and I am the Ultimate Cryptid Hunter!** ”

...A cryptid hunter. She was a cryptid hunter. She hunted cryptids. Cryptids? Aren’t those the creatures that, that nobody can prove exists? Yes. Those. Those are what cryptids are. She hunted cryptids. That explained the odd get-up. Realistically it probably didn’t, actually, but it made sense in his head. Yeah. Yeah it did. Mmhmm. Yes. Yup. Oh my god, say something already you fucking idiot- 

“So you go out looking for monsters?” Eric blurted out. “Like, Bigfoot and stuff?”

“Oh my god oh my god oh my god NO!” Sora yelled, her voice getting even louder once again. (This should really stop being so surprising, Eric thought.) “It’s so much more than that! There are so many creatures that did exist and DO exist that nobody even knows about! It’s not a JOKE!” Every inch of her body was seething with rage. Granted, it wasn’t a whole lot of inches, but it was still _very_ unnerving.

Sora took a deep breath in, then a deep breath out. Then she did it again. After she did that a third time, she seemed like she was back to normal. “Mm. Sorry about that. Your talent is super cool though!” Ah, there was that familiar exuberance he’d known for approximately 5 minutes. He missed it.

“Aw, thanks, yours is too.” Eric smiled. “Really! You’ll have to tell me about those monsters you’ve found some time.”

“Oh heck yes I will!!!” Sora exclaimed, pumping her fist into the air and doing a little jump. “But first,” Sora put a finger up to her chin, pausing briefly. She then suddenly grabbed Eric by the shoulders, giving him a brief jolt of _AAAAAAAA_. “I have to introduce you to everyone else!!!!”

“Alright, sure.” Eric said. “Let’s do it.”

As he was pulled down the hallway by his tiny new friend, Eric noticed that each of the fifteen doors had a strange, unique, multi-colored symbol on it. He had not time, however, to thoroughly see what exactly they were, as his unfailingly excited escort swiftly took him into a large lobby room that instantly assaulted his eyes with garrish neon pinks and deep crimson reds. Camera lights lined the walls, hanging lifeless, without so much as a flicker emanating from their bulbs. On the wall to the right of him, Eric saw a massive computer screen that appeared as if it were a black hole that could consume the entire room. From across the room he could see a small kitchen area being inspected by a broad-shouldered man and a skinny androgynous character, and along the walls were various doors leading off into different rooms, including one that was chained shut with a comically large padlock. To, quite literally, top it all off, hanging above the room was a sparkling white chandelier that… wasn’t even being used??? What was the point???

“Wh. Wh.” Eric squinted as he struggled to form words. “What the. What the fuck. What the fuck is this pla-”

“Ah!” Sora said. Oh wait. That didn’t sound like Sora. Oh dear. Only two people in and Eric was already getting sick of being discovered like this.

Eric turned his head around and saw, opposite from the screen, two people sitting on a cafeteria bench that, for all intents and purposes, seemed too normal to be there.

The person who called his name, a fair-skinned woman with purple hair in a lavender top that exposed the shoulders, spoke up. “Oh, I’m sorry, you startled me for a second there.” Ah. Mm. Okay. “Hello there... Mister? Oh! I don’t believe I’ve seen you yet here, actually!” 

“Huh. Think he’s the last one.” Said the second person, also a woman. She had tan skin and wavy brown hair that flowed over her right eye, and she was wearing a black and yellow sleeveless hoodie and short gym shorts. “I haven’t _really_ been keeping track, if I’m being honest.” She folded her arms behind her head.

“Well there’s your first problem.” The purple haired woman admonished, crossing her arms. “Losing count of our attendance here surely wouldn’t help in solving this situation, no?”

“Mm.” Hoodie girl shrugged and nodded. “So! New guy, do you know anything we don’t?”

Eric looked up and furrowed his brow. “Woke up in an unknown room, left said unknown room to enter this nightmare of interior design, shock and terror ensues.” He recalled. “Oh! And apparently everyone here is a celebrity being creeped on by some weird dark web internet forum.” He heard Sora cry “It’s not dark web!” from afar.

“Rats!” Hoodie girl said bitterly. “Yeah, that’s all we got, man. So, you have a name?”

“Oh yeah, uh.” Eric fidgeted his collar. “My name’s Eric. Eric Castle. Hi.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Eric!” The purple haired woman said. “Certainly it would be nicer to meet you if it weren’t under these… y’know! Unpleasant circumstances. But nevermind that! **I am Malissa Kaiser, and I have been given the title of the Ultimate Voice Coach!** ” 

“Ah, so we’re all doing that, okay.” Eric said. “Well I’m the Ultimate Escape Artist, I guess. Nice to meet you.” 

“Ooh, fancy!” Malissa said, raising her eyebrows, and she shook his hand.

“That’s easy for you to say.” Hoodie girl smirked. “You clowns, showing up to a kidnapping plot in dress pants. The nerve!” She got up from her seat with a spring. “Anyways, **I’m Jazmine Jones. Ultimate Track Runner.** ”

“Oh shit, you run for a living?” Eric asked. “I respect that. You’re stronger than most.”

“Yeah, it’s all about physical endurance and stamina ‘n all that. Takes practice but, I’d say I’m pretty good.” Jazmine gave a little smug smile. “Although I can’t imagine it’s more physically taxing than trying to worm your way out of a tiny metal box. That’s filled up with water. And also you’re tied up.” She gave a sideways glance. “It’s almost kinda hot really...”

“I am choosing to ignore that statement.” Eric said flatly. “So Malissa how about you.” 

“Oh, I’m glad you asked!” Malissa clasped her hands together and smiled brightly. “Yes, I’ve been known for teaching local choirs, mostly children, delightful they are. And I will say, not to embellish myself or anything.” Malissa looked to both sides and grinned a playful grin. “But I have an… impressively high success rate in competition. And clearly that’s caught someone’s attention!!... Although perhaps not the right people, hrm.”

“Yeah…” Eric winced. “So wait, have you heard about those forums before now?”

“I have.” Jazmine raised her hand. “When track season is over I have way too much time to spend doing stupid shit on the internet, so that’s been shoved in my face numerous times. Didn’t look long enough to know anyone else on the forum though. Shame, woulda been nice to see some familiar faces.” She shrugged.

“While I’ve never searched on it myself, this forum has come to my attention, yes.” Malissa said.

“Damn, how did I not know about this before? It’s incredibly frustrating.” Eric gritted his teeth. “So is the whole, being kidnapped thing, but I assume that goes without saying.” The two women both made vague noises of agreement.

“So, where do those other doorways lead to?” Eric finally thought to ask.

“Oh, they lead to other rooms in the facility.” Malissa said. “There’s an infirmary, a library, a game room, and a fourth room that we do not have access to.”

Eric glanced back to the door with the cartoonish lock. “Don’t try breaking the door open. I already tried that.” He heard Jazmine say with disappointment in her voice. 

“Well, I guess I’ll go see the other rooms then.” Eric said. “...Seeya-”

“Wait!!!” He heard Sora shout from afar. God, why did she keep shouting.

“Eric!” Eric. Eric.” Sora gestured her perpetually confused friend to come over near her to the kitchen. “You _gotta_ meet these guys, Eric! They’re super cool!”

Eric looked back and saw Sora in the kitchen with the two people he saw earlier. Ah, so that's where she went off too. That made sense. He proceeded to walk across the bright yet barren room to approach them.

The kitchen looked… relatively plain, when compared to the rest of the room. It still had the red and pink color scheme, but it was less vibrant. Other than that? Typical kitchen. There was a fridge, oven, cabinets, a tray of fruit and vegetables that almost looked like plastic, all the works. Sora had been excitedly chatting with the two people he had vaguely noticed earlier. 

“Hiii!” said one of the two, a thin person who stood at about Eric’s height with short, bright pink hair. They wore a white cropped jacket, black t-shirt, and pink skirt, and had an ecstatic grin. “Nice to meet ya! How are you? Are you doing okay? Are you doing alright?” 

“Uh, um, well, I’m kinda freaking out right now.” Eric stammered. “Though that kinda goes without saying.” 

“Oh, oh, of course!!” Pink Hair said, nodding rapidly. “This predicament is quite concerning!”

“Hmm,” The other figure, the big, broad-shouldered man Eric saw, rubbed his sharp, stubbled chin. He was tall and lean, had light brown skin and wore a dark green hoodie that loosely hung over a plain grey shirt with dark jeans. He wore two bright green earrings, and from behind his head, his dark brown hair hung back in a long, messy ponytail that split into different directions. “Guessin’ you wouldn’t know what’s goin’ on here, eh?”

“Unfortunately not.” Eric said.

“It must involve the Ultimate Forums though!” Sora piped up. “We all agree on that, right?”

“Yeah.” the big guy said, and Pink Hair nodded in agreement. “Thas’ some spooky shit right there.”

“ _Finally_ someone else gets it, oh my god.” Eric sighed. Sora gave him a look. “I assume you both have talents, too?”

“They have _super awesome_ talents, yeah!!” Sora said excitedly. “They-oh. You guys should say. Sorry! Go ahead.”

Pink Hair smiled. “Oh, you flatter me, darling! Now, allow me to introduce myself!” They put their hands on their hips, striking a pose. “ **My name is Dakota Skye, and I am known as the Ultimate Actor!** ” He then leaned forward and speedily shook Eric by the hand.

“Ah, nice to meet you… Sir?...” Eric said.

“It really doesn’t matter.” Dakota smiled, brushing her hair out of his eyes. 

“Gotcha.” Eric nodded. “So, you do acting? A theatre kid, I presume.”

Dakota gasped dramatically. “How could you tell?!?”

“I was just picking up that energy from you.” Eric shrugged.

“Ahh, a telepath!” Dakota raised his eyebrows. “You are indeed very powerful!”

“I mean, it ain’t that hard to tell.” Said the big guy, scratching the back of his neck. “So whatta bout you?”

“Oh, my name’s Eric. Ultimate Escape Artist.” 

“Aha, a fellow man of the stage!” Dakota smiled proudly. “So that’s how you were able to discern the truths of my talent. It’s a _psychic connection!!!_ ”

“Damn. That’s some magical mystical shit.” The big guy said.

“It is!” Sora agreed.

“So, you are a master of the escaping arts, hmm?” Dakota pointed her index finger inquisitively. “Do you think you will be able to lead us out of this place, then?” 

“I dunno man I just got here.” Eric said.

“I’m sure Eric can figure it out!!” Sora said, beaming. Eric smiled a bit.

“I’m sure he can! Truth be told, I’ve heard murmurings of an “Ultimate Escape Artist” who could break through any entrapment…” Dakota paused for a moment, then her face turned to an enigmatic grin that beamed straight towards Eric. “You might just truly be a talent on the stage to rival my own!”

“Hmm. Maybe.” Eric blinked. “So, how’d you get into acting?” He asked. 

“Oh, well, I’ve loved doing it since I was young of course!” Dakota said, smiling. “It’s such a surreal thrill to be up in front of hundreds of people and give them the best performance you can! Live! Uncut! 100%! It’s… it’s really something.”

“...I like that, man.” The big guy said. “You’re passionate. Followin’ your dreams and all that. I respect that shit.” 

“Yeah, yeah…” Eric nodded in agreement. “Wait. Sorry, I don’t think I ever got your name.”

“Oh, shit, my bad.” The big guy chuckled. “ **The name is Andre Imari. Apparently, I’m the Ultimate Lifeguard.** ” He reached out and shook Eric’s hand and _fuck_ he was strong, okay.

“N-Nice to meet you, Andre.” Eric said. “So, Ultimate Lifeguard, huh?” 

“Eh.” Andre shrugged. “I like helping people. It ain’t that deep. Wouldn’t really call myself an _Ultimate_ of anything.”

“Well you clearly must be doing _something_ right!” Sora said. “You’ve saved so many people, it’s amazing!”

“Anyone could do it, ‘s just a matter of looking out for people, is all.” Andre raised an eyebrow. “And I got an eagle eye.”

“That’s… very noble of you, Andre.” Eric said.

“Aw, man, I appreciate it.” Andre smiled. “I just hope that we ain’t gonna be cooped up in here for long.”

“That would be… very unfortunate, yes.” Dakota looked down. “But do not worry! Keep looking, the answers can only be hidden in so many places! Good luck to you!”

“Haha, thanks.” Eric smiled, his face turning red. “Well, it was nice meeting you both! I, uh, I’m gonna check out the other areas now, I think. Get acquainted with the rest and all.”

“Yes!! Make friends!!” Sora beamed.

“Aight, have fun with them. Buncha wild and wacky characters they are.” Andre scratched the back of his neck, looking off somewhere or another. “‘Specially you.” He added, pointing to the tiny monster hunter.

“I am not wild and wacky!!!” Sora shook her fists angrily, pouting. “That is factually untrue!!”

“Mmhmm.” Eric said. “Well, I’ll be off.” He said, and began walking vaguely in the direction of… one of the doors, he hadn’t decided yet. Sora came by quickly behind, waving at the two. Evidently, she had decided to follow him, but eh. Eric didn’t feel the need to question it. 

“So, what do _you_ think is going on here?” Eric asked.

“Hmm…” Sora rubbed her chin. “I’m not sure! Fourteen hostages with Ultimate talents... You’ve graduated, right?”

“Uh, yeah.” Eric raised an eyebrow. “Why’s that important?” 

Sora paused for a moment. “I had a hunch… I’m gonna keep an open mind though! It could be anything.”

“Ah.” Eric nodded. “Well, those people were nice.”

“They were!” Sora said. “They really were.”

Eric glanced back at them. “Looked nice too.” He said, for some reason. His face felt hot. “I mean-”

Ah! Hee hee hee, say no more.” Sora smiled. “So, where to next, frie-oh I guess we’re in the Library now.”

And indeed they were. It, refreshingly, looked like a normal library. Simple, homely brown walls surrounded them, and before them were countless wood shelves, each one filled to the brim with a never-ending supply of books. Eric saw multiple chairs and desks, including one being occupied by a serious looking man with gelled up orange hair and a maroon turtleneck sweater. He was intensely reading some non-specific novel, but briefly looked up and, for a split fragment of a second, made direct contact with Eric from behind his thin, square-framed glasses.

“Hey! You.” Eric said, hoping to catch the man’s attention for at least a physically perceivable amount of time. 

“Mm.” The man said. 

“So, uh. Whatcha readin’.” Eric asked.

“...Hm.” The man repeated again, not taking his eyes off of his book. There was an uncomfortable beat of silence, one evidently long enough to read a full page. Eric clapped his hands together and looked up awkwardly, almost thinking to say more actual human words but ultimately deciding against it. 

Finally, the man at the table took a quiet breath. “You know, if you’re so good at escaping things, maybe you should escape this burning wreck that you attempt to call a legitimate human interaction.” He turned the page again.

“Um, I’m sorry,” Eric blinked. “What?” 

“You heard what I said.” The man closed the book and set it down, but he would not look at Eric. Sora fidgeted with her sleeves, her eyes glued to the corner of the room.

“Ahh, so you’re one of those.” Eric sighed. “A creep from the forum, I presume.”

“If that’s how you choose to look at it, then yes.” The man glared in no direction in particular. “It’s good to be well informed about those around you, especially when you’re put in a situation where that information can be vital.”

“Cool! Good to know.” Eric said, rolling his eyes. “Well, since you’ve taken the liberty of stalking me on the internet, I’d at least like to get a name from you.”

“Oh, stalking is an unfair exaggeration. I only know little base knowledge about all of my inmates here.” The man dismissed. “But I will oblige in giving my name, **Sam King** , and my talent is, hm… should I say…”

“Say it, coward.” Sora said very sternly.

“Fine.” Sam furrowed his brow. “Well, whatever it is to you, I am titled **the Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist.** ” He grimaced.

“Ahh, okay, that explains a _looooot_.” Eric said, looking upwards.

“Fool!” Sam yelled, gritting his teeth. “Are you just going to take me for a lunatic screaming at the sky? That is…” He took a deep breath. “...Understandable, I suppose. It’s not your fault that I was given such an undignified title by the forum moderators. But I can assure you, I’m good for more than just hunting down the make-believe, mm?” Sora twitched. “In fact, I already know precisely what it is that’s going on.” 

“Then tell us.” Sora demanded.

“Hm, I’ll save it for later. It’d be more practical to say when everyone’s gathered together, wouldn’t it?” Sam said, raising one eyebrow. Sora nodded begrudgingly. “I’m glad we can agree. I would appreciate my privacy now.”

“Understood! Yes.” Eric nodded, and the two exited the Library deftly. “Geez, what an asshole.” He said the second he left earshot.

“Don’t be rude!” Sora said. Eric blinked. Sora’s face looked as if nothing even happened in the Library room. “So, where to next? We have the Infirmary and Game Room left.”

“I’m in the mood for something vaguely fun.” Eric said. “Let’s check the Game Room.” 

And so they did. The Game Room had similar garish colors to the Main Lobby, but this one had dark purple walls with glowing, neon orange highlights. Multiple arcade cabinets filled the area, along with a table and chairs with various board games, where a boy with a conspicuous bush of hair was seated. There was also a pale man with long black hair fiddling with... was that a foosball table in the corner? God, this place was a nightmare. 

“Well at least this room _almost_ has a color scheme.” Eric said upon entering. He heard a jeering laugh in response.

“Hah! Okay.” Said the person he just heard, a woman with long black hair leaning against one of the arcade machines. She wore a white t-shirt with a maroon tie lazily hanging in front, and muted green sweatpants. A sinister grin stretched across her face. “I don’t know what you’re on man, but this place is fuckin’ _jank._ ”

“I.” Eric paused. “I was. I was just saying in. In comparison to the rest of the location-”

“It’s jank.” Tie girl repeated with vaguely more conviction. “It’s wack as _fuck._ You don’t get to argue with me about this. I win. You lose.” She cackled.

“I’m not saying it looks _good_ , oh my god! I’m just-” Eric sighed, cutting himself off. This probably wasn’t worth it. 

The bushy haired boy giggled, his voice soft yet poised. “It is pretty jank.” 

“Thank you!” Tie girl exclaimed. “Always appreciate a crowd with good opinions.”

“Blegh.” The long-haired man grumbled, batting his stringy, black hair away from his face. 

“So. Let me guess.” Eric’s voice rang out flatly. “You guys don’t have any idea what’s going on.”

“Well, fuck, I sure don’t! It’s ja-” Tie girl looked up for a minute, stopping herself. “Wait, no, I’ve overused the term. It’s lost its charm. Damn.” She rolled her eyes, kicking up dust that didn’t exist. “It really do be like that.” 

“Yeah, okay.” Eric said.

“I don’t know what’s going on either.” Bush said. “Whatever happened, it’s certainly an odd set-up, dontcha think?”

“Yeah! Why would someone who-” Sora began talking as she wandered around the room. “Kidnapped a bunch of talented young adults-” She circled around the foosball table, and the long-haired guy grimaced. “Have a room, of all things, just for-” She came back around and poked her head out in between two arcade cabinets. “Video games?!?” 

“Hey, not _just_ video games.” Bush piped up. “You don’t disrespect Connect Four like that. It’s an art.”

“...This joint is fuckin’ bullshit.” The long-haired guy finally said words.

“Amen, brother.” Tie girl nodded. 

“Well, while we’re all here.” The bush-haired guy swiftly got up from his seat, standing oddly close to the two of them. His hair was a bright orange-brown, and he wore a pastel red t-shirt atop tan skin. His dark black jeans had many rips in them - the thin, meticulous, fashionable kind - and he had dark green eyes that were on the verge of eclipse from his hair. “Sora, I don’t think you’ve introduced me to your new friend! How are you doing today?”

“N-”

“Oh, shit! Uh, yeah, sorry. Not the right time! To ask that!” Bush cut him off, stepping back and laughing sheepishly. “Of course. Sorry, about that. Yeah. It’s just, instincts, y’know?”

“Yeah, I getcha.” Eric nodded, glancing down.

“Well, we should probably get acquainted, no?” Bush asked, tilting his head to one side. “That seems like what everyone’s been up to. So, uh, I start or you start?” 

“Doesn’t matter to me.” Eric said. “You can go first.”

“Gotcha!” Bush said, shooting a pair of finger guns. “ **I’m Marco Flores,** and uh… are we doing these? I guess we are. **My talent is the Ultimate Tattoo Artist.** ” 

“Oh, tattoos?” Eric raised an eyebrow. “But… hrmm…” He scanned Marco, scanning up and down his bare forearms in the least weird way possible.

“Haha, yeah, I only turned 18 a couple months ago, so I didn’t have a lot of time to rack them up, except for this one.” Marco said, pointing to his cheek, where Eric noticed a small green heart shape below his eye. “But I’ve been designing them ever since I was younger! I don’t usually end up behind the needle though, but my designs are always big sellers, so.” he shrugged. “Make of that what you will."

“Hmm. Starting off with a face tat.” Tie Girl clapped her hands together. “That’s bold. I respect that.”

“Yeah. Nice to meet you, Marco.” Eric said, shaking his hand. “I’m Eric Castle, and I’m the Ultimate Escape Artist.” 

“You sure you’re an _Ultimate_ Escape Artist?” The tie girl smirked, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, you’re still stuck here, and like, how long has it been, an hour?”

“We’ve been kidnapped. This ain’t a gig.” Eric rolled his eyes. “Also I’ve been sidetracked with the task of meeting like twelve different people, _and_ i’m running on maybe five hours of sleep and I feel like I’m dying.” 

“Mood.” Marco said.

“Don’t say that.” Eric said.

“Mother _fucker_.” The long-haired guy hissed at nothing in particular. 

“Is something wrong?” Sora asked, showing up opposite from him at the foosball table.

“Of course there’s something wrong, you fuckin’ idiot.” He turned to Sora with a venomous glare. “You stupid motherfucker. You stupid dumbass bitch-ass motherfucker. You fuckin’ moron piece of shit.” He went on, and Sora deflated with a look of concern. Finally, he crossed his eyes and sighed. “There’s _always_ something fuckin’ wrong.”

“Cool.” Tie Girl said.

“So, guess you’re just here dickin’ around then?” Long-Haired Guy snarled. “We’re all stuck here with no fuckin idea why and you’re just gonna stick around and rot? You’re just gonna do fuck all? Is that what y’all have been up to?”

“I don’t want to be rude, but,” Marco raised an eyebrow. “It’s not like you’ve been contributing much.”

“...I don’t give a fuck, man.” Long-Haired Guy said. “Who could possibly care. Fuck. Could bust my way out of here if I really wanted to.” 

“Mmhmm. Sure! Good luck with that.” Tie Girl scoffed, furrowing her eyebrows at him. 

“So, uh, I don’t think I’ve gotten names from you two edgelords, or anything.” Eric said with a tired laugh.

“Edgelord?” Tie Girl raised an eyebrow. “Ok. Well, **my name is Eva Ridley** and, for what it’s worth, some creepos on the internet think **i’m an Ultimate Comedian**. So, there.”

“Ah,” Eric nodded. “So that explains-”

“Why I insult everything around me during most of my day-to-day conversation, yes.” Eva said. “Needed the clarification, genius.”

“Okay.” Eric furrowed his eyebrows.

“What a joke.” Long-Haired Guy said, shifting his glare. “What a fuckin’ joke.”

“Yeah! That was the idea, dumbass.” Eva sneered. “So how about you, huh? Why don’t you introduce yourself to the class?”

“Fine, sure, whatever.” The long-haired guy said. His eyes were a piercing orange - contacts, obviously - and he snarled with fang-like teeth. He wore a dark grey t-shirt with some abstract neon green patterns involving a skull, and navy jeans that looked worn and far too long for him. “ **Folks call me Young Rex. Ultimate Street Fighter.** Don’t cross me, K?”

“Oh GOD, even your _name_ is fucking stupid!” Eva wheezed, before widening her eyes in mock fear. “Oh no!!! Pwease don’t huwt me sir!!! It’s not my fault I don’t undewstand youw twisted mind!!!!” She cackled uncontrollably, shattering her dissemblance. “Ahh, dude, get a life. And a haircut. Please.”

Rex glared at the comedian, a vein popping on his temple. “I could fucking kill you, bitch.” 

“Hey hey hey NO!” Sora interjected. “Break it up guys! That’s not okay!”

“I think, maybe…” Eric tugged at his collar. “This is our cue to leave…”

“Yeah, maybe.” Sora said, looking down.

“Ah, well it was nice meeting you, Eric!” Marco said, smiling. The other two didn’t respond.

Next room up was the Infirmary. Luckily, it’s palette was a tasteful white, which was refreshingly easy on the eyes. A figure with dark brown skin was sitting one one of the three beds in the room, and to his side was a blue gurney with a lifted-up neck against the wall. Next to the beds there was a hanger that held a stethoscope, blood-pressure monitor, and other devices of the sort, and at the far right wall there was a medicine cabinet that was being inspected by a woman with short, curly blonde hair.

“Ah, hello there.” The person on the bed said. “Nice to see another new face here. Or, no, I suppose it isn’t though, really…” They blinked and laughed awkwardly. “Not because of you, specifically, of course! It’s just that it must not be-”

“Yeah, don’t worry, I get it.” Eric sighed. “Being kidnapped isn’t fun.”

“Indeed it isn’t.” They chuckled. “Well, welcome to the club. It appears you’ve met Sora already.”

“He’s my friend now!” Sora exclaimed, gesturing towards the Escape Artist.

“I would never assume anything else.” The person on the bed said, grinning lightly. “Well, have you been holding up?” 

“Hmm, alright I guess. I think at this point I’ve met most of the people here actually…” Eric began counting on his fingers.

“Good, good.” The person nodded. They had short, curly hair that was dyed dark red, and they wore a mint button-up shirt and grey jeans. A silver earring hung from their left ear, and from behind their glasses Eric could see quite prominent eyelashes. “I suppose I should introduce myself as well, then!” They said, lifting themself up from the bed and clearing their throat. “ **I am Tod Kelly, the Ultimate Poet.** ”

“Nice to meet you, Tod!” Eric said. “I’m Eric Castle. Ultimate Escape Artist.”

“Ah, I see…” Tod said thoughtfully. “An escape artist, hmm? Well, I suppose it’s good to have you in here with us then.”

“Well geez, I sure hope so.” Eric said dryly, looking off to the side. “And what about you? You do poetry?”

“Well, yes. Obviously I can’t hope to _talk_ our captors into freeing us from wherever we are, unless under the right circumstance, but,” Tod stroked their chin and smirked. “People wouldn’t call me an “Ultimate” if I didn’t have at least _some_ sort of way with words.”

“Ah! But that begs the question.” The blonde woman suddenly spoke up, swiveling away from the medicine cabinet to face them. “What does it really _mean_ to be labeled an Ultimate by people who you don’t even truly know?” She turned to look at Eric. “Oh, also, hi.”

“Hi. Good question.” Eric said. “I’ve been questioning the validity of this forum myself, seeing as I’ve never even heard of it before today.”

“Hmm, curious.” The blonde woman pondered. “It does appear, though, that our captors plan to have us stay here a while, doesn’t it? They’ve certainly given us much more space and resources than an average hostage’s quarters would have…”

“I know right, it’s really freaky!!” Sora exclaimed. “They even have a Game Room in here!”

“Yeah! It sucks!” Eric added.

“I’ll be sure to keep that in mind.” The woman chuckled. “Now, we must consider all of the possibilities that lay before us, then. What reasons would one have to abduct a dozen talented high school graduates into one place? And where in the world could we be, even? If this building wasn’t made to sustain _us_ , it was certainly made for _someone_ , but whom? Questions, questions, questions. You two wouldn’t happen to have any answers, would you?”

“Um, Riley, dear, I think you might want to slow down.” Tod laughed awkwardly. “You haven’t even told them your name yet.”

“Oh dear, I have not!” The woman - Riley, apparently - said. “Apologies, friends. Allow me to do just that, then! **I am the Ultimate Stunt Designer, Riley Taurus.** ”

“Ah.” Eric said. “Nice to meet you, Riley.”

“Ooh, you do stunts???” Sora asked in awe. “That’s so cool!”

“Ah, well, I’m no fit to perform them myself, of course,” Riley said, gesturing towards herself. She was slim and fair-skinned, with a bony face and wearing grey-blue jacket over a tan t-shirt and black skirt. “But I’ve always loved to envision what unbelievable feats can be shown on screen! Thus, I began designing, and my work has pushed the limit of what the world thought the human body can do, whilst also ensuring the complete safety of all our performers! So, yeah.” She shrugged. “That’s essentially my mojo, as one would say.”

“Nice.” Eric said. “I like that.”

“Oh, I am glad!” Riley smiled. “And your work must grant you a lot of respect, too. Had we met under more favorable circumstances, I would appreciate the opportunity for us to collaborate.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Eric said. “Not really good with, like, explosions and stuff, though.”

“Oh, no explosions.” Riley said, making a waving gesture with her hand. “Completely overdone.”

“It’s good to see you’ve found some common ground here.” Tod smiled. “I do not know why we’re here, but let’s hope that we can put our talents to good use to find out.”

“Heck yeah!” Sora said.

“Well, I’ve looked through all the areas.” Eric said. “But I don’t think I’ve quite met everyone yet. Should we head back to the Lobby?”

“Sounds like a plan, my man!” Sora nodded.

“We’ll follow too. There’s not much else to look through here, anyways.” Tod said, glancing around the room. 

“Yes, yes!” Riley pointed her index finger up. “Let us go, then.” 

Upon re-entering the familiar eyesore that was the Main Lobby, Eric spotted two new faces talking in the middle of the room. Jazmine and Malissa were still talking on one of the benches off to the side, and Eric saw that Marco had now joined them. (Smart choice, Eric thought.)

“Oh!! Hello!!” One of the new faces - a pale, wide-eyed girl with bright green hair styled in twintails - spotted him almost instantly. “New friend! I do not believe I have seen you before!!”

“Damn, it seems like just when you think any more people in this place, another spiffy lookin’ fellow comes along.” Said the second stranger, a lean man with fair skin, who ran a hand through his curly blonde hair. He wore sleek crimson jeans, and a grey t-shirt with a big, red logo that read the word “HUNT!” accompanied by a pair of eagle wings.

“Yeah.” Eric nodded uncertainly. “It really… really do be like, that.”

“Yeah, yeah, y’get me.” The blonde laughed. “Still, though, usually when I wake up in some big house I’ve never seen before, we, like, plan that shit weeks in advance.”

“That sounds exhilarating.” Eric said. “Do you have any idea what’s going on?”

“Afraid not, sorry.” The blonde smiled awkwardly. “Bout as in the dark as the rest of y’all.”

“It is very curious.” Riley said thoughtfully. “Fourteen Ultimates suddenly kidnapped for no apparent reason? There’s certainly a story there.”

“Oh yeah!! We are Ultimates!” Green hair piped up, her volume nearly matching Sora’s. She wore a pink crop-top with a heart emblem on it, and a short, green frilly skirt. 

“Yeah, we are, supposedly.” Eric shrugged. “I’ve never heard anything about an Ultimate before today, myself.”

“Well, I’m sure a good lookin’ guy like yourself’s gotta be an Ultimate of something.” The blonde winked. “As for me, **I’m Hunter Harris, the Ultimate Vlogger**!”

“Ah.” Eric’s face went red. “Well, it’s nice to meet you, Hunter…" As the words left his mouth, Eric glanced at his shirt, blinked, and then glanced again. "Wait are you wearing your own merch?”

“Look! It’s a nice shirt, okay! One moment I’m on my lonesome, just, like, chillin’ out, my entire jaw hurting from biting into a fuckin’ hammer- don’t ask.” Hunter looked sideways. “And now, well, now I’m here I guess!!”

“Ah, I understand.” Eric lied. 

“Cool.” Hunter said. “So, what about you?”

“Well uh, my name is Eric Castle. Ultimate Escape Artist, I guess.” Eric said.

“Oh, damn, now that’s a cool talent!” Hunter said. “I’d say something about you escaping this junction, but, you’ve probably already heard that a shitload, huh.”

“Yes.” Eric said. “Thank you, I appreciate it. Like, really.”

“Ooh!! May I say my talent now?” The green haired girl asked.

“Oh heck yeah!” Hunter nodded and gave a thumbs up. “The floor is yours, my compadre.”

“Okay!!” The green haired girl beamed. “Hello everyone! **My name is Rosetta Asimov, and I am known as the Ultimate Popstar!** ”

“Nice to meet you, Rosetta.” Eric said.

“Nice to meet you too, Eric! Would you like to hear me sing?” Rosetta asked.

“Uh, sure.” Eric shrugged.

Rosetta smiled to herself and, after pausing for a moment to think, began to sing, her voice dancing up and down the notes to a Japanese song Eric didn’t recognize. The tune culminated in Rosetta hitting a dazzling high note, that her voice then carried gracefully back down to earth.

“Wow, that was… amazing.” Eric eyes widened in awe. “Really. How did you learn to sing like that?”

“Oh, that is simple!” Rosetta said, smiling. “I am not a real person!” 

“Wuh. Th. Gh. Gh bh whah huh??????” Eric stammered.

“She’s a robot, dude!” Hunter said. “It’s wild.” 

“Wait!!! Oh my gosh!! Oh my gosh!! You’re a real, functioning, self-aware humanoid automaton? Like, for real??” Sora gazed in childlike bewilderment. “That’s!!!! That's the coolest _ever!!!_ ”

“Aaaa!!! Thank you very much Sora!” Rosetta giggled with joy.

“She’s. She’s a robot.” Eric said to himself. “And. We’re all just, accepting that now?”

“Yeah.” Tod replied. From across the room, they heard Jazmine shout “I’ve heard weirder!”

Suddenly, the conversation in the Lobby was stopped dead by the piercing sound of an intercom speaker coming to life. “ **ATTENTION ALL RESIDENTS OF THE SHOW QUARTERS. PLEASE REPORT TO THE MAIN LOBBY AREA IMMEDIATELY.** ” It buzzed robotically. Eric felt a chill go up his spine. 

“Well, you heard the ominous monotone voice. Although…” The Poet Tod put a finger to their chin. “It looks like most of us are already here, no?”

“That appears to be the case!” Riley, the Stunt Designer, agreed. 

From across the room, Tattoo Artist Marco stood up from his seat and walked towards the rest of the group curiously. “Well, we might finally be getting some answers here.” 

Jazmine raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that, but,” The Track Runner swiftly got up and followed behind. “Clearly something’s gonna start happening.”

“Damn, I hope so.” Hunter, the Vlogger, said. “Or maybe I don’t. I dunno. Shit’s freaky.”

From the Library hallway, The Actor, Dakota, came skipping. “Ah, it seems like everyone already beat us here.” 

“Well, yes,” Malissa nodded. “Although, that is partially due to myself and others, erm, remaining here the whole time.” The Voice Coach conceded. 

“Can’t really blame ya.” Marco shrugged. “It’s not like there’s much to see here besides a misunderstanding of basic color theory.” 

Following from behind Dakota were Sam, the Conspiracy Theorist, and Andre, the Lifeguard. Andre briefly held up a peace sign to greet the rest of the group. Sam did no such thing.

“Ay, my man Andre!” Hunter said, high-fiving the man. “How’s it hangin’ out here, man?”

“It’s hangin.” Andre said.

“This buffoon _forcibly_ took me out from the one place in this rancid establishment that holds any semblance of legitimate interest to me. That is how it is hanging.” Sam hissed. “It’s not like I need to be dragged here to be told things I already know, anyways.”

“No need to be rude, Sam!” Sora, the Cryptid Hunter, scolded. “You don’t know anything anyways.”

“Is this everyone?” Robot Popstar Rosetta asked to no one in particular, her glance darting around the room.

“Almost,” Eric said, as Rex and Eva, the Fighter and Comedian, entered from the Game Room. 

“What up, dumbasses.” Eva greeted. Rex said nothing, but made a vague grunting noise.

“Alright. _Now_ this is everyone.” Riley said, mentally counting all the heads she saw. Twelve, thirteen, fourteen....

“There’s someone else coming.” Andre said. 

Everyone’s head turned towards the hallway where the sleeping quarters were located. It was hard to make out at first, but from the frantic, shuffling sounds of footsteps, yes, there was another person here. 

“Oh, hello everyone! Um, oh dear.” Loose grey hoodie, crimson shirt, baggy jeans, shaggy brown hair. The man that stood before the group looked a tired, disheveled mess. “What is… going on?”

“You tell me.” Eva rolled her eyes at the latest entry.

“Ah, so that makes fifteen, yes?” Riley asked. 

“Yes.” Sam nodded. “That seems about right.”

“And just who the fuck are you supposed to be?” Rex glared at him.

“Well, **my name is Vincent Clark. You all can just call me Vince,** and… looks like I’m just as confused as the rest of you lot.” He laughed awkwardly.

“Ah, and what of your Ultimate talent?” Sam asked, furrowing his brow.

“Um.” Vince blinked. “Pardon.”

“Oh!” Sora piped up. “We all-”

Suddenly, the group was interrupted once again, as the camera lights lining the walls flashed on and everyone’s attention turned to the massive screen in the room that blinked to life with scurrying static before the footage on the screen settled on a woman in a dramatically lit room, sitting at what resembled some sort of fancy restaurant table for one. The woman wore a black and red dress, and had short, banged hair that was perfectly symmetrical - if not for the fact that it was dyed black on the left side and white on the right.

“Ah, are you all here now? Is it finally time? Is it finally time? Is this thing working?” The woman began fiddling with the camera. “Oh, of course it’s working. I knew it was. Still, it’s a classic gag, you know? Anyways, I’m sure you lot have a lot of questions, and I have a considerable amount of answers! But just hold on, we’ve got a lot of base to cover right now.” She laughed, winking her thin, red eyes.

“Where are we??” Rosetta asked innocently to the screen.

“We’ll get to that, we’ll get to that! I just told you to hold on, okay?” The woman on the screen sighed, picking up a martini from the table. “Alright, first thing’s first…” She took a long sip, closing her eyes. When she was done, she opened them, looking stone cold at the camera. “Stop making fun of my set, you fucking whores.”

“It is very bad!” Riley proclaimed in retaliation.

“It’s super bad.” Eva scoffed. “Rancid. Awful. Terrible.”

“I... think we’ve established this.” Marco said. 

“Oh, I’d have half a mind to punish you lot for slander right about now!” The woman’s eye twitched, her face twisting to an unnatural smile. “And you don’t even know what punishment is yet!” Sora blinked.

“Do you plan on saying anything of actual value at any point?” Tod raised an eyebrow.

“Yes! Right now! We’d have _totally_ been on a roll by now, but we’re only just starting and you all are walking all over me! It’s disrespectful!” The woman shouted. She took another, longer, sip, and then retained her calm. “Alright, so you want to know why you’re here right?” 

Various loud statements were thrown at the screen, all equating to something along the lines of “Yes.” 

“Alright!” The woman exclaimed, suddenly putting on a very showbiz voice. “Then _today is your lucky day!_ ”

“How is this lucky?!” Hunter shouted at the screen. “I have things to do and a family to see, man! What am I _doing_ here?”

“Yes, yes, I understand you all have busy lives to get back to.” The woman said. “I mean, after all, you’ve all just graduated high-school now, no? Or… are of the age to graduate high-school, I suppose.” She glanced at Rex, presumably.

“But!” The woman exclaimed. “Today, I am presenting you with… _the opportunity of a lifetime_!”

“What do you mean!? Nothing you have said thus far has made any sense!” Malissa chided.

“You, my amazing, dashing, eccentric, _talented_ friends…” The woman began grinning to herself. “Will be participating in America’s very first jaw-dropping, breath-taking, tear-jerking, heart-wrenching, world-changing, beautiful, extravagant, incredible, fully-televised _killing game!!!_ ” She sighed and smiled with glee. “Ahh… I’ve been waiting so long to say that.”

“K. Killing. Killing game.” Eric formulated the words in his mind out loud, not even being able to process the bustling noise of fear and confusion surrounding him.

Killing game? What is that? What does that mean? Killing game? I don’t want to die. Will I die? Killing game? What does that mean? We need to get out of here. I don’t want to die. Killing game? Killing game. Killing game? Killing game? These were the deafening thoughts that he heard both inside and outside his mind, building and building as everyone shouted different forms of the same question, the same, horrified question, building and building and-

“...Ahem.” Sam was the first to speak up after the noise died down. “What exactly does this killing game entail?”

“Killing and games, obviously!” The woman said, clapping her hands together. 

“That. That can’t be real.” Dakota said. “This can’t be real.”

“Oh it’s 100% real alright, so real that it’s out there right now for the world to see!” The woman gave a victorious shout. “Otherwise they wouldn’t call me **Mona, the Ultimate Killing Game Host!** ”

“Killing game. Killing game.” Eric kept repeating to himself. “What does that even mean?” 

“Ok, ok. Here’s the actual lowdown.” Mona said. “Sometimes I forget people don’t know how these work. Alright, so y’all are stuck here, right? And ya wanna get out, right? Well, there’s only two ways you can do that. The first one, well, you can figure out from context clues…”

Jazmine widened her eyes in horror. “...You have to kill someone-”

“And _not_ get caught.” A sinister gleam rose from Mona’s eyes. “Ooh, this is the fun part! After a body is discovered, the remaining players will partake in an investigation period, and then, a fierce trial to decide who the killer is!” 

“T… Trial?...” Marco laughed nervously. “We’re… hah, we’re not even trained professionals in… ANY form of law…”

“Yeah, I know right? Lame bunch of talents this year.” Mona rolled her eyes. “All the good ones have gotten used up and dead already, so now we’re stuck with numbnuts like **Vincent Clark, Ultimate Bad Luck.** Geez.”

“Ultimate… Bad Luck?” Vince raised an eyebrow. “I’m, I’m sorry but I really don’t understand this whole talent thing. Or… any of this, really.”

“You’ll get it at some point, kid.” Mona said. “But, anyway, trials! After the trial has been concluded, the participants will vote on who they believe the killer is. If you vote for the right person, only the killer gets executed! But… if you vote wrong…”

“Everyone _except_ the killer dies.” Sam stated matter-of-factly. “I presume.”

“Bingo!” Mona cackled. “Finally, _someone’s_ getting it! Gotta appreciate a man of culture.”

Unlike the panic from earlier that filled Eric’s eardrums with a cacophony of terrified noise, now everyone was stunned into silence. Sora was shuddering, her face frozen. Riley was looking back and forth between her own hands. Rex backed away from the group, glaring at everyone who surrounded him. Dakota started incoherently mumbling. Vince once again repeated the words “Ultimate Bad Luck” to himself in bewilderment. 

“...You said there was another way to win the game.” Andre said. “And get out of here.”

“Ah, yes, I did.” Mona said. “To do that… you must **_beat the mastermind._** But, eh, you won’t have to worry about that for a while!! So, uh, I think that’s it! ...Bye!” And the screen flicked off. There was silence.

Sam glanced back and forth, looking thoughtful, as if he once again had something to say to break the maddening quiet. “Ah.” He finally said after what felt like ages. “So it’s Danganronpa.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, against my better judgement, it looks like we're doing this now. I've been having ideas for a Dangan bouncing around in my head for literally a year now and after being inspired by the amazingly clever and Omega Powerful fic Operation V.K, I've decided to throw in my own spin on the whole Dangan Rangan. I'll add in trigger warnings and tags as they come along when/if I feel they're needed, and to view visual refs of all the kids you can go here: https://imgur.com/a/uEjmoTf (i'd reccomend viewing the images in new tabs to get the proper picture, imgur's full black backgrounds kinda make the linework wonky but giving these images non-transparent backgrounds is almost equally annoying.) But, for now, I hope you enjoy.


	2. Day One, Part One - Death Despair TV

Danganronpa. Danganronpa? Danganronpa. Eric ran that series of syllables Sam had spoken through his head over and over and over. It was a word, or perhaps a sequence of words, that he’d never once heard in his entire life. Danganronpa. Dan-gan-ron-pa. The name didn’t even sound vaguely familiar to him. Was it another thing he was supposed to, just, know? Eric almost preemptively sighed at the thought, but then he looked around the room and, no, nobody else had any idea what this guy was talking about.

“Uh, hey. Smart guy.” Eva pointed towards Sam. “You’re gonna hafta do some explainin’ before you just start name-dropping random bullshit and expect us to understand."

“Mm.” Sam gave the scornful comedian a flat glance and shook his head in disappointment. “Danganronpa. It’s an old Japanese television show that aired decades ago about high school children forced to murder each other.”

“Sounds lovely.” Eric muttered. 

“Nice weeb trivia, dumbass, but how is that important?” Eva barked, crossing her arms. 

“If you were to let me _finish_.” Sam said through gritted teeth. “The connection is obvious. The specific procedure and terminology of this “killing game” are lifted directly from the show.”

“Seems fake.” Marco raised an eyebrow. 

“Yeah, this isn’t sounding really plausible…” Vince tugged at his collar, laughing awkwardly. He glanced around the room. “I mean… they’re recreating some old show from Japan? How was that show even made, anyways? Doesn’t seem legal…”

“Eh, the Japanese…” Eva waved off as if she was making some sort of point. Everyone gave her sideways glances.

“Mona did say this killing game was televised, correct?” Tod asked inquisitively. 

Sam nodded. “Indeed. As strange as it may seem, the most _plausible_ explanation is that this is some sort of revival of the series.”

“So, we’re, ahem, we’re being filmed? For a television show? For a television show where we're supposed to kill each other on live broadcast?” Dakota’s eyes widened in shock as she began laughing nervously. “That!!! That!!! That’s not okay!!”

"It certainly isn't..." Malissa said, before turning to her right. "Sora, dear, you don't look quite well... would you want me to take you to your room?"

Sora's face was paler than ever, and her frantic eyes widened. "Nn! No, I'm! Ffffine! Yeah!!!" She shook her head rapidly.

"Mm." Malissa gave a concerned look. "Well please, at the very least you should sit dow-" She gestured toward the benches and tried to take Sora's hand, but it jerked back, shaking.

"No don't worry don't worry I am doing fine I’m ok thank you!!" Sora shouted. A cold chill lingered in the room as everyone gave worried glances to the small, shivering girl. 

As the silence crawled on, Riley tapped her index finger to her chin. “Well, realistically, speaking, if this truly is a televised production…” She then clicked her heels, her eyebrows raising as her face took on a sudden enthusiasm. “Then, my friends, all we must do is wait!”

“Huh?” Andre raised an eyebrow. “Oh. Yeah. I get it.”

“I don’t.” Hunter frowned. 

Sam gave another one of his split-second-glances to the vlogger and then promptly rolled his eyes. “It’s basic logic, even an obnoxious simpleton should be able to understand. It’s-”

“Sam, please.” Riley smiled. “Allow me.” She clapped her hands together, and then took a swift step towards the group with her newfound vivacity, raising an index finger thoughtfully. “The _one_ thing a television program needs, my friends, is an audience! Without an audience to breathe life into a show, and give it a reason to exist, the show will surely collapse on top of itself! So, therefore, an audience must remain engaged with the show to keep watching, _or rather_ , the show itself must work towards keeping the audience engaged.”

“Oh!! I see!” Dakota’s face lit up. “Yes, people watch this dreadful show with the dastardly intention of watching us murder each other!! But, if nobody dies,”

“Then _the show dies._ ” Riley grinned. “And thus, with the show a failure, the producers will have no reason to keep us here.”

“Yeah!” Dakota exclaimed, pumping his fist into the air.

“So, they tell us to kill each other, and we _don’t_ do that.” Jazmine pondered, giving a thoughtful nod. “I’ve always been one to live life on the edge. I’m game.” 

“Y’think this is what beatin’ the mastermind means?” Andre asked. “Y’know. Makin’ sure nobody dies.”

“If it was that _fuckin_ simple, we’d already be out, you dumb fuck.” Rex hissed through his raven black hair. “You think this is simple shit? I ‘on’t think this is simple shit.”

“You were literally threatening to kill people back when we were in the game room.” Eric felt himself blurt out, as all the eyes in the room immediately shot to Rex like spotlights. Ah, so this was when he felt it was appropriate to speak up. 

“The fuck? Dude, what shit are you even _on_ , man.” Rex spat. “Y’think I’d actually fuckin’ try and off everyone like some big raging dumbass? Wow, boy can’t take a fuckin’ joke, apparently.” He continued to grumble sounds vaguely resembling curses as Eric gave quick looks to numerous people across the room to emanate the energy of _’Yikes, man.’_

“Well, nevertheless.” Sam pushed his glasses up. “We still don’t have a legitimate plan of action for escaping here, besides Riley’s suggestion of complete _inaction_ , which, might I add, has a 100% failure rate.”

“Wow, good to know, Mr. Loremaster.” Eva scoffed. “What, you get off to kids dying or some shit?”

“He prolly does.” Rex glared. “Fuckin’ sicko.”

“Sam.” Andre said sternly, holding direct eye contact with the bespectacled man. “We gotta coexist, dude. ‘s the only option.”

“Hrm.” Sam glanced thoughtfully, looking suspended in a state of almost-about-to-say-something for a solid minute. “Very well then.” 

“So we agree to not murder the shit out of each other, glad we’re on the same page there.” Jazmine said, glancing around the room. “But what do we do now? Do we figure out a way to bust out of here?” 

“I reckon so, yes!” Dakota said triumphantly. “A thorough investigation of the premises seems worthwhile!!”

“Hmm, maybe so.” Tod said, glancing thoughtfully around the candy-colored walls. “But if we are to follow Riley’s plan of… psychological warfare, I presume, then making an escape plan wouldn’t be in our best interests.” He nodded to himself, tapping his shoe semi-rhythmically against the hard-wood floor. “Forgive me if I’m wrong, but I believe that our captor is the type to get entertained from watching us squirm, and that would delay the effects of the plan.”

“Mm, well, it's not like I have anything else better to do. Right now we're stuck here either way.” Jazmine said, scratching the back of her neck and turning to face the scattering of doors on the far ends of the room. “I’m gonna go look for… somethin’, I guess. Anyone wanna come with?” 

“Oh! I would like to go as well!” Rosetta piped up, skipping along to follow her.

“Hell yeah.” Andre nodded, and promptly followed the two as well.

“Stay safe, my friends!!!” Dakota shouted to the explorers. “Let us know if you find anything!!” Jazmine said something back that Dakota was just out of earshot to hear, but it was taken as a general sound of assent.

After the three left, there was an odd silence. Not a silence of choking trepidation like Eric had felt before, but instead a silence of… anticipation? Or, rather, a strange curiosity for what was to come. Was that the same thing? It probably wasn’t. Or maybe it was. Even so, Eric couldn’t help but wonder if simply waiting to be let out was the right option. Would Mona really get bored that easily? Hmm. 

As Eric contemplated, he began to notice people beginning to orbit towards different areas of the room, some chunked in groups that were slowly making their way to one of the doors. “Are you just… letting them go off, on your own?” He turned to Riley, who ran a hand through her blonde hair as she looked lost in thought.

“Hm? Oh!” Riley snapped her fingers, her eyes widening then returning to normal within the span of a millisecond. “Ah, I suppose. Everyone that’s going off seems to be doing so in a good cause, and even then! From what I see, they’re all going off in sizable groups, in which coming up with some murder scheme would be impractical.” She tilted her head and smiled at Eric. “So, yeah!”

Eric slowly nodded in cautious agreement, when from the corner of his eye he saw Sam, not having moved an inch from the spot he took when Mona first showed her face, giving them a scowl that spat muted venom. “You trust these people too much.” He sighed, and then he turned and walked away. 

“...Good _lord_ that guy is fucking creepy.” Eric's shoulders detracted as he gazed at the man with alarmed eyes. “I’d… yeah I’d keep an eye on him.”

“Fair point.” Riley conceded.

As Eric scanned the room, he saw that Sora and Malissa were seated together on one of the benches. Sora’s face returned to being normal-pale and not scary-pale, but Eric could see that she was still shivering.

“Hey.” Eric said. “Are you holding up alright-”

As soon as Eric spoke, Sora shot up from her seat, stumbling for a moment, and looked back up at Eric with wide eyes. “Oh! Eric! Hi! I’m doing. I’m doing okay! Well, not really! Kinda scared! But! But. But!” She started to lean on the bench again. “It’s okay! It’s okay.”

“You should probably get some rest.” Eric said, gesturing towards the dorm-room hallway. Sora shook her head frantically in response, as her radiating fear became plain to see. The two glanced at each other wordlessly for a moment, Sora's eyes seemingly attracted to the ground. Eric hugged her. Sora flinched for a moment, but ultimately returned the hug.

“I… I appreciate it, but!” Sora said, pulling away. “Please don’t worry about me!! Okay?”

“...Alright.” Eric nodded hesitantly. “Stay safe, Sora.”

“Mmhmm!! Mmhmm!!” Sora smiled. “I will!”

Feeling slightly relieved, Eric turned back around to see Vince standing inches away from him. Oh. Okay.

“Hey, uh, Eric, right?” Vince asked. “There’s something I wanted to show you, if you’re cool with that.”

“Hmm?” Eric raised an eyebrow. “Sure.” 

“Alright, Rick!” Vince grinned. “Follow me!”

“Don’t call me that.” Eric said.

“Alright, Eric!” Vince began to walk into the hallway, and as Eric followed, he looked along the hallway doors and- ah. Those strange symbols on the doors he saw earlier, the ones he could only get a quick glimpse of, turned out to actually be simplistic, colorful portraits of each participant of the game. Eric saw his portrait - containing little features other than a big blue eye peeking out from an unkempt splotch of brown hair that completely covered the right side of his face - and frowned a bit. He at least had _some_ sense of style, jeez.

“So, what did you want to show me?” Eric asked, shifting his view back to the shaggy haired boy.

“Ah, yeah! So, uh…” Vince continued walking down the empty hallway for a while, then stopped and turned to Eric. “When you woke up and got out of your room, did you see, uh… that?” 

Eric’s eyes followed as Vince pointed towards the end of the hallway opposite from the main lobby, and he saw something that no, he didn’t see, he absolutely had never saw, for if he saw it he would have remembered. It was a giant elevator door, it’s frame colored white on the left half and black on the right, with a red check-mark symbol conjoining the two at the very top. The frame surrounded a thick, dark glass that Eric could almost see through, but no matter how much he strained his eyes, anything on the other side was but obscured by his reflection.

“...Where does it go?” Eric wondered out loud, and began to reach out to the door-

“Oy!!! Stay off my turf, you pussy ass twinks!” Eric suddenly heard a voice say, and right then and there some strange, cartoonish creature materialized before them. Despite its sleek, metal exterior, it appeared to resemble some sort of plush bear. Much like the elevator, (and Mona’s hairstyle, Eric remembered,) it was colored half white and half black, and the eye on the black side of his face was the same red check-mark that adorned it.

“I… I’m. Y’know what? Sure.” Eric threw up his hands defeatedly. “Fine. I’ll bite. What are you supposed to be?”

“I’m Monokuma! Fuck your mother!” The _thing_ said with glee. 

“Okay.” Eric sighed.

“That, um, doesn’t answer our question!” Vince laughed nervously. “Why are you… uh.”

“No, I think just that’ll work.” Eric said. “Why are you?”

“Well, you see!” Monokuma did a little twirl. “You can’t have a killing game without a Monokuma!”

“That.” Eric blinked. “Doesn’t answer my question.”

“Fuck you you massive dumbass! We’re still on day one! You’re expecting to get answers to your questions right now? That’s not how this works!” Monokuma barked. “You’re a fucking hoe!”

“Could you at least explain why we’re here?” Vince asked. “There’s a lot of stuff to keep track of here, and for some reason a talking plush bear feels like it shouldn’t be one of those things.” 

“Well, simply put! Since our lovely human host can’t be here in the flesh, my job is to monitor you dumb fuckwads and make sure you aren’t up to any funny business! If I catch you shitlords breaking any of the rules, then it’s Punishment Time for you!!” Monokuma said, cackling. “Speaking of which, you two should probably stop making out in the hallway and check your bedrooms to read the official list of rules!”

“I-I!! We weren’t!!” Vince stammered, his face going red. “Haha! I wasn’t!-”

“We were not doing that.” Eric said, covering his mouth as he glared at Monokuma.

“It was a fabrication made for the purposes of comedy _fuck you gay!_ ” and with that, Monokuma vanished. Cool.

Eric looked around the hall, trying to make sense of _whatever_ it was he just heard. He glanced back at Vince, whose eyes darted awkwardly around the room. ...He had the distinct curse of being _almost_ cute, but not quite and honestl-oh fuck this. Fuck this so fucking hard.

“So, uh, we should probably check those rules, huh?” Vince put his arms up behind his head, starting to walk back. “Sorry if I’m, like, being weird or anything…”

“No. You’re fine.” Eric said flatly. “Really. Sorry if I sound disingenuous, this is just… how I talk, I guess.”

“Gotcha, R- _E_ ric!” Vince caught himself, walking towards his room. Eric nodded and entered his. 

\----

“Hee hee hee!!” Rosetta giggled as she flung herself onto one of the hospital beds. “Comfy.” 

“Well, gang,” Jazmine started talking as she opened the medicine cabinet, peering through left and right. “Guess we’re… looking for things. So, uh, holla at me if you see any things that look like they should be looked for.” She sighed, scanning left and right over the assortment of uniform pill bottles, the types that could only kill you the way normal medicine could, but still eerie nonetheless. “Lord knows why I decided to lead this little unit of ours.”

“Because you are really cool!” Rosetta said as she shuffled excitedly in her bed.

“Heh, maybe. Thanks.” Jazmine grinned as she closed the cabinet door. Then opened it and looked through it again, and then closed it. Wait, was she sure she didn’t miss something? She opened the cabinet just a crack and peered through again.

“Everything seems to be in order here.” Andre said, carefully looking through the various medical supplies situated to the side of the beds. He peered up at Jazmine, who once again closed the cabinet doors. “Didn’t find anything there, huh?”

“I don’t think so…” Jazmine said. “I’m no doctor, but everything there just looked like normal medicine to me.” She sighed.

“Well it is good to have a hospital here!” Rosetta said, springing up from her bed. “That way, if anyone got hurt, we could take care of them!!”

“Yeah.” Jazmine nodded with a far away gaze. “Yeah…” She continued nodding an empty nod as Andre put the hospital supplies back in order. Rosetta swang her arms back and forth absent-mindedly as she looked around, her smile never waning.

“Well,” Jazmine said, blinking back to reality. “Do you think anyone’s actually going to… y’know? Try to kill someone, like Mona said?”

“Mm.” Andre tapped his foot. “Do you?”

“I mean, not really…” Jazmine put her arms up from behind her head. “We have an alright plan, I think. I dunno. But what about you?”

“...I think someone will try.” Andre said thoughtfully. “I don’t think they’ll actually go through with it though.”

“And how do you know?” Jazmine raised an eyebrow.

Andre looked to the side for a moment, thinking. He shuffled his hands in and out of his pockets as his head awkwardly craned around the room. “People are like that.”

“Ah! That makes sense.” Rosetta said.

“I mean, I vaguely trust everyone here, besides the creepy anime guy.” Jazmine scoffed. “People like him need to get a hobby, jesus christ.”

Andre shrugged. “Can’t imagine you’d be able to get one here.” 

“Yeah, unless you’re into video games I guess.” Jazmine said, nodding. “And the last thing I need is to be surrounded by a bunch of gamers.”

“What’s a?” Rosetta blinked, cocking her head to the side. “Gamer?”

“Oh no, fuck, forget I said anything.” Jazmine said, smirking and shaking her head. 

“Okay!” Rosetta smiled, blinking innocently. 

Jazmine paused, releasing her grip from the brass cabinet door and turned to face the room's other two occupants. “...So, you really are a robot, huh.” she said thoughtfully.

Rosetta raised an eyebrow, cocking her head to the side. “Of course I am! Why would I not be?”

“The age of the machines is upon us.” Andre said in an almost ominous tone. He then threw his hands behind his head with a shrug. “I’m cool with it.”

“Eh, yeah, the idea of my personal security possibly being compromised isn’t nearly as annoying as hearing old people complain all the time.” Jazmine waved her hand in a dismissive manner. “Although freaky internet shit is probably what got us stuck here… fuck.”

“This is why you use a different password for each site.” Andre pointed his index finger up.

“That. That doesn’t have anything to do with it, you clown!” Jazmine said. “Or maybe… eh, fuck. I dunno.” 

“Jazmine! You.” Rosetta began before stopping abruptly, squinting her cartoonish eyes intensely at Jazmine, examining her in a way that she probably couldn’t understand with her inferior fleshy human brain. “You do not seem to be very concerned about what is going on!” She concluded.

“Hmm?” Jazmine raised an eyebrow. “I… I guess not, huh.”

“I know I would be!” Rosetta said. “But! Due to my programming, I am only able to be emotionally invested in something to a certain extent. It is strange!”

“..Ah.” Jazmine said. Truth be told, the field of robotics was entirely alien to her, so she decided the best comment to give here was no comment at all. It… _probably_ made sense, anyways. “Well, I guess I’m still processing everything that’s going on. I have a hard time believing anyone’s actually gonna get hurt, y’know?” 

“Ah, yes, I see I see!” Rosetta exclaimed. “I also hope nobody gets hurt!” Jazmine nodded uncertainly.

“I wouldn’t be too worried. I’d be a little worried though.” Andre said as he began to walk towards the exit of the infirmary. “Like. Stay cautious n’ all that. See ya 'round.” He shot a finger gun at Jazmine before walking out the door.

“Hmm…” Malissa brought a finger to her chin. “I agree!! Also, I think I will leave as well, to see what everyone else is up to! Bye Jazmine!”

“Yeah, bye.” Jazmine waved at Rosetta, who promptly skipped out the room. Now alone in the infirmary, she sighed and rubbed her temples, her gaze wandering around the dreary hospital room. “This place is freaky as fuck.” She said to nobody. “I don’t like it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yo, sorry it took a minute for me to get this done, but here we go! We officially have multiple chapters. Truly a milestone! So, yeah, I can't promise consistent updates from this, I'm mostly just doing this as a fun side-project from other things, but I hope you're enjoying it so far :>


	3. Day One, Part Two - Psychological Warfare

As Eric entered his dorm room, the first thing he did was instinctively fling himself onto his bed and proceed to stare at the ceiling. Only a couple hours into this Killing Game and he already felt exhausted, emotionally and physically. Although, it wouldn’t be incorrect to say he was exhausted most of the time. But this was, obviously, clearly, a very exhausting state to be in in particular. Too exhausting, really. Well…

...After a few minutes of being only vaguely conscious, and figuring that hey, maybe becoming emotionally detached from all of your surroundings isn’t a very good idea in this scenario, (or, perhaps, ever,) Eric decided to get up and actually look at the rules that Monokuma told him to look at. He glanced around the room and, sure enough, on the nightstand to the left of his bed sat a little tablet with a vacant black screen and an outer shell colored white on the left side and black on the right, (because _of course_ ). He instinctively pressed what he recognized to be the on button, and the tablet screen shot alive with a startling white as a sharp logo reading the name _“MonoTablet”_ slid across the screen. Afterwards, the rule list unceremoniously popped up in white text over a grimy dark blue background. _Quality design_ , Eric thought. _Now let’s see here..._

**Killing Game Rules:  
** All participants must remain on the filming grounds for the duration of the show.  
Any assault on the Killing Game host or property will be immediately punished by execution.  
During Night Time, (10:00 PM - 7:00 AM), filming for the show will be halted and certain areas, such as the kitchen, will be restricted.  
Even though filming for the show will not occur during Night Time, cameras will still be active for the purpose of monitoring participant activity.  
Using the MonoTablet of another living participant is strictly prohibited.  
When a murder occurs on filming grounds, a trial will always follow.  
Additional rules may be added at any time by the show staff. 

Hmm. That made sense. No real substantial new information but, well, Eric wasn’t quite sure what he was expecting really. Well, there was no point in sitting in here and mulling it over any longer. Yeah, the final rule was a bit concerning, and kind of a cheap cop-out in favor of the game runners, yeah, but there wasn’t much more beyond that. This was… god, it was all so fucking _stupid_. What a stupid, stupid game. Stupid concept. Stupid game. _Ugh._

Eric found himself once again to be parallel to the ceiling, looking upward aimlessly as his gaze drifted among the walls, as the distance between them seemed alarmingly small. The corners were inching closer together, the ceiling hanging over his head by a thread, its grip slowly giving out as the walls kept getting closer and closer and closer and-

_Jeez_ , okay, this is no good. Being in here was no good. Eric figured that he should probably take himself outside. 

\----

Eric wound up walking himself to the Game Room, which he saw to be fairly vacant with the exception of Hunter and Marco hunched over opposite sides of the little table in the center of the room.

“So, what are you guys up to?” Eric asked as he leaned against the door-stand. 

“Practicing psychological warfare.” Marco smiled.

“He’s makin’ me play Connect Four with him.” Hunter smirked awkwardly. 

“...Ah.” Eric nodded. “But why Connect Four when you can connect…. Life.” He mumbled to himself way too loudly. 

“Good point.” Marco said. Hunter blinked.

“Thanks I’m… y’know!!” Eric chuckled. “Uh. Tired.”

“Are you sure you’re not high? I think you might be high.” Marco turned to Hunter. “I think he’s high, man.”

“I’m not high.” Eric furrowed an eyebrow.

“Hey, man, I’m not judging!” Marco smiled sincerely.

“I don’t think there’s any of that shit here.” Hunter said. “N-Not that I looked! But…”

“Yeah, that seems reasonable.” Marco nodded. “And I don’t think anyone here would be the type to Abuse Substances anyways, except for that one creepy guy.”

“Which creepy guy are we talking about here?” Eric raised an eyebrow.

“That's fair.” Marco said, raising up an index finger. “So, Eric, how are you doing? How've you been taking all of this?”

Eric blinked for a moment, or perhaps several moments, as Marco looked at him intently. “Uh…” Eric scratched the back of his neck. “Bad. Not, yeah, not liking this. Not liking this at all. Still trying to figure it out in words, beyond… that.”

“I totally get it.” said Marco with a sympathetic smile. “Speaking your emotions into words is… hard. I abstain from doing it most of the time.”

“Um.” Hunter gave a concerned look. “That doesn’t seem very healthy, man.” Marco shrugged, and that was the end of that.

“So, how’s your, uh.” Eric blinked as he walked over to the table. “Game going.”

“We’re just starting a new one, actually!” Marco said. “Come, watch.”

Eric proceeded towards the two and sat down on the floor to the right side of the table. After meticulously sorting back their pieces on each side, Marco set the bottom of the board back in place with a satisfying click, and stared intently as he sharply dropped a red checker piece dead center in the board, with three open slots to its either side. Echoing Marco, Hunter picked up a yellow piece and, closely scrutinizing it, inspecting something that he made look very much worth inspecting, he dropped it as it fell on top of Marco’s initial piece.

“You really are serious about this game, huh?” Eric asked as Marco stared poker-faced at Hunter’s move.

“Yeah, it’s kinda freaky!” Hunter exclaimed. “But, like. In a cool way. For real.”

“Aw, thank you Hunter, I appreciate you.” Marco smiled and clasped his hands together. “And, also. Psychological warfare.” He gave a sly grin as he dropped his second piece, directly to the right of his first.

“Ah, ah!! I’m pickin’ up what you’re puttin’ down here!” Hunter nodded as confidence materialized on his face. He thereby grabbed a piece and flung it into a spot on the far left. 

“Wild card play. I like it.” Marco said, dropping his own piece on top of it. 

“Do you know what you’re doing, Hunter?” Eric chuckled, while glancing at the blonde as he put on a boasting smile.

“Oh heck yes, my brethren! Get ready for my ultimate technique!!” Hunter said, raising a piece into the air comically high and then dunking it into the slot above Marco’s last piece, above his own. Marco glanced at him, then the board, then back to him, with a blank expression.

“Bet you weren’t expecting that. Heh heh.” Hunter laughed awkwardly.

Marco blinked. “No, not really.” He said, as he placed as he dropped a piece directly to the left of the first piece. 

“Oh fuck.” Eric winced in realization as Marco’s face gleamed. “He gotcha.”

“Hmm. Did he? No he didn’t.” Hunter said as he placed a piece third down the left, between Marco’s and his own. And then, in the blink of an eye, Marco wordlessly dropped his final piece, directly to the right of his three pieces laid out across the center horizontally. “I win.” He grinned with satisfaction.

“Oh fuck. Oh fuck. Oh fuck!!!!” Hunter shouted, before sighing in defeat. “I’ve been got.” 

“Damn, you’re really good with the psychological warfare thing.” Eric said. “I assume. Is what was happening there.”

“Oh yeah, it’s the classic trick.” Marco said with a smirk. “Distracting your opponents with red herrings into a false sense of security so they can’t see their ultimate downfall happening before their very eyes!”

“Cool.” Eric nodded. “Do you have any other tricks besides that one?”

Marco stopped for a moment, putting his finger to his chin as he stared thoughtfully at the game board displaying his victory. “Mm. Not really.” He answered.

\----

The hours were growing late, and the captives were slowly gravitating back towards the Lobby. Some had even gone to sleep, (or just barricaded themselves in their dorms, it was impossible to tell,) while a couple were still amiss in one of the other rooms. Malissa sat down at one of the benches with a scrappy salad plate obtained from the cafeteria and began to eat, glancing at nothing really in particular.

“Y’know, if this really is being filmed for a TV show, then it’s some hot garbage TV.” Someone said. Malissa turned around to see who spoke: It was Eva, the comedian, grinning her perpetual grin. “There’s nothing going on here, we’re just thrown into this building to talk about nothing and drop dead. Who’d wanna watch that?”

“It is… a rather unpleasant situation, yes.” Malissa said, inwardly cursing at her own shaking voice.

“That’s not what I said, but, okay. Go off.” Eva shrugged. “I guess you’re not wrong.”

“And you seem to be taking all too kindly to this…” Malissa’s voice trailed off as she glanced in her direction.

“Oh no, don’t make the misconception that I’m actually enjoying myself here.” Eva said, shaking her head. “I just don’t have the energy to be panicking like everyone else is right now. There’s no point really.”

“It’s… not really panic, though?” Malissa said thoughtfully. “What I’m picking up from everyone here. There’s fear, yes, but it’s more subdued. It’s strange… a little bit unsettling, if I may be honest.”

“...Ah.” Eva raised an eyebrow, shifting her gaze about the room. “You’re not wrong.” She blinked, and her expression quickly switched back to normal as she threw her arms behind her head. “Well, I’m gonna go sleep now. See ya.”

“It’s… barely half past seven.” Malissa said, instinctively checking a watch that didn’t exist before looking to a clock on the Lobby wall. “That isn’t much of an appropriate time for sleep.”

“Hasn’t stopped me before!” Eva barked as she walked off to her dorm, before turning her head to look at the purple-haired coach. “You’ve got a good head, Mal. It’s best you keep it on your shoulders.”

“Rest well, Eva.” Malissa said. “Your ominous remarks are much appreciated.” She added with a smile.

“Yeah, I figured.” Eva grinned.

\----

The hours slowly crawled by, and Eric hovered around the lobby as his eyes periodically magnetized to the clock. The time had just passed eight, getting closer to that “Night Time” phase the rules had mentioned. He shrugged at some nothing to his right and, thinking now was as good of a time as any to get to sleep, headed towards the dorms.

“Aha! Eric!” An excitable voice caught Eric’s attention. He turned around: It was Dakota, the theater kid. “I was hoping to see you!”

“Oh, what for?” Eric asked, raising an eyebrow. “Did you need me for something?”

“Oh no!” Dakota shook his head rapidly. “Burdening you with some petty task, right now of all times, wouldn’t be right at all! I just wanted to check on you, because…” He clasped her hands together, looking down. “I hadn’t seen you at all since what transpired in the Lobby this morning… and!! I was worried! Because, you see, it was important to me to make sure that everyone here was doing fairly all right.”

“...Oh.” Eric said, his eyes widened. He blinked. “Well. I’m… doing better than I could be, I guess.”

“Ah, I see!! I'm sorry if I've been a bother to you,” Dakota waved their hands nervously. “I had no such intentions, just-”

“No, no.” Eric shook his head. “I appreciate it, really. Thanks.”

“Ah. Ah, of course!” Dakota smiled confidently. “It’s critical that everyone is in as good condition as they can be right now. It’s incredibly important to me that no one gets hurt!” 

“Yeah, that makes sense.” Eric nodded in agreement. “Oh, did you read the rules for the… _Killing Game_?” He asked, painfully wincing through the last part.

“Oh yes! That rotten bear screamed at me to do that… many times!” Dakota sighed.

“I see you’ve met him too.” Eric said flatly. 

“Yeah!” Dakota grimaced. “Having the rule list is useful though. A little bit.”

“Mmhmm, I suppose we’ll take any info we can get, huh.” Eric said, brushing his hair out of his eyes. “This whole thing is… so fucking stupid.”

“You put it better than I could.” Dakota giggled, her eyes gravitating to the ground. Eric raised an eyebrow as he noticed her wringing her hands in front of his chest. “Um… can I ask you a weird question?”

“Go for it.” Eric threw his arms behind his head. “I’m all ears.”

“Does, this… what’s happening now...” Dakota said, his shoulders shifting uncomfortably. “Does it feel real to you? Like it’s really happening?”

“Oh? Oh.” Eric shook his head. “No. Absolutely not.” 

“Aha!!! That’s!! A relief, I guess?” Dakota laughed nervously. “Because, um. I feel the same way.”

“Yeah, I figured that was a natural human reaction, but, I could be wrong.” Eric said. “I’m sure you’re fine though.” 

“Thank you.” Dakota said, in a voice that was nearly a whisper. “I appreciate it.” He smiled.

“No problem.” Eric smiled. “I’m gonna go sleep now. I’ll see ya around, I guess.”

“I guess so, yeah!” Dakota said. “I’m sure our paths will cross once again!!! As… It wouldn’t be that hard. In here.” She added, quickly striking a dramatic pose that dissolved just as fast.

“Yeah.” Eric said with a small laugh. “Night, Dakota.”

“Night!” Dakota said, waving.

As Eric made his way down the hallway to his dorm, he found himself stopping as he saw a door to his right. The door had the cartoonish icon of a girl with big, excited eyes, and black, spiky hair. After half a moment’s apprehension, Eric knocked on the door.

.

No response. Eric knocked again.

“...Sora? Are you there?” Eric called out into the door. No response.

“It’s me. Eric.” He said, knocking on the door again. 

.

No response.

“I’m not gonna hurt you.” He said. Eric heard faint footsteps, and backed away from the door as it creaked open. 

“...Eric?” Sora peeped through the sliver of the door that was open. “Eric. Eric! Eric!! Aha, aha ha, you’re here!” She smiled a big, sad, smile, one that tugged forcefully at the sides of her cheeks, and her face had the residue of dry tears. “It’s nice to me-see you! To see you. It’s nice to meet you it was nice seeing you!! How are you doing?”

“I’m fine. That’s not important right now.” Eric said firmly. “You’re clearly not doing well at all, and I want to help you. Can I come in?”

“N-! I’m fine!” Sora shouted, her voice strained. “I’m fine!! This is fine! It was nice seeing you here and now i’m gonna wake up, and i’m gonna wake up and i’m! This isn’t-!” 

“Yeah.” Eric said, because that’s all he could think to say. “Look, just focus on taking deep breaths. Okay? Breathe in. Breathe out.”

“N-! N-n-!!!” Sora frantically shook her head. “H-Hi! I’m!!”

“Just follow me, Sora, okay?” Eric gently placed a hand on Sora’s shoulder, speaking in a slow and soft tone that even he wasn't quite familiar with. “Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out. You’re alive. You’re going to live.” 

Sora continued to stammer in resistance, but eventually followed, her breathing beginning to slow down to a normal pace. “This is just… Ha! Aha ha!!” Sora blinked rapidly as choked laughter continued to let out from her throat until it shakily stopped. “Hm. Mm. Th- I’m. You can come in if you want.” She said. “A-and close the door, please!!!!”

“Alright.” Said Eric, doing just that. Sora sat down on her bed, staring wordlessly at her own hands. “Sorry.” She finally said.

“How long have you been… in here? Like… this?” Eric asked, giving her a concerned look. 

“Um. I! Don’t know... hh.” Sora muttered. “It’s not important!!!”

“Sora…” Eric sat down next to her. “You’re scared. Right?” 

“I… yeah.” Sora admitted. “This isn’t okay. It’s not gonna turn out okay. I. Didn’t want this to happen.” 

“I know.” Eric nodded. “I know.”

“I’m… really sorry about this.” Sora said with a sigh. “I’m sorry you have to- h. Hh! Y’know.” She started shivering.

“It’s fine.” Eric said. “I just want to make sure you’re safe, okay? We’re gonna get out of here, somehow. They can’t keep us here for long.”

“Mm. Mmhmm, yeah.” Sora nodded shakily. “Because you’re the. Ultimate Escape Artist.”

“Yeah.” Eric nodded. “I am.” The two were silent for a moment, the only sound audible being that of unsteady breathing.

“Thank you.” Sora said. “For coming.”

“Of course.” Eric smiled. 

“Could you… stay here for a bit longer?” Sora asked nervously. “I’m not asking you to sleep here in my room of course, because!! That’d be strange! We’ve only just met!! But… I don’t wanna be alone right now.”

“Yeah.” Eric nodded. “I get that.” 

\----

The time was 10:45 P.M., a ways into Night Time, and well past any time that Tod Kelly should’ve been out and about in... whatever this place was. And, yet, there they found themself looking about the Library, aimlessly picking up a book here just to put it down, or brushing their hand up against one of the shelves, when another person in that room caught their eye. The man who they could only reasonably refer to as “Rex” was sitting lazily on a chair, semi-rhythmically tapping his fingers on one of the desks.

“Ah, Rex.” Tod said. “I… wasn’t expecting to see you.”

“But’cha did see me here, and tha's that.” Rex shrugged. “No use in saying shit that’s fuckin’ pointless.”

Tod sighed. “While you’re here, I wanted to ask you… Have you seen Sam anywhere?”

“Mm?” Rex questioned wordlessly.

“None of us have seen him since our little altercation after Mona’s appearance, and that was back at noon. His sudden disappearance is quite concerning, especially given the nature of our situation.” Tod explained.

Rex shook his head. “Nah. I don’ fuck with Sam.”

“That.” Tod blinked. “Doesn’t answer my question.”

“I ain’t seen ‘em. Donno why you’re lookin’ for ‘em either, you ain't got nothin' to worry about with that fucker.” Rex said. “Bitch can’t off a suicidal ant, twig-lookin’ ass.”

“Thank you for clarifying.” Tod said. “And what brings you out here at these hours?”

“Fuck, man.” Rex sighed. “What brings us anywhere?” 

“Interesting question.” Tod nodded. “It’s one that many great minds over the course of history have tried to answer. But I don’t think that any true answer is meant to be given to that question.” 

“Yeah, its a fuckin’ stupid question, tha's why.” Rex rolled his eyes dismissively, glaring to the side. “Do you have an answer?” He raised one eyebrow. 

“Hmm.” Tod rubbed their chin thoughtfully. “No. I don’t think I’ve found it yet.”

“Haven’t found it yet? Psh.” Rex smirked. “When’d we get on this psycho-philosophical bullshit? Did I start it or did you start it?”

“I believe you did.” Tod said.

“Haha, yeah.” Rex grinned a lazy grin. “But you’re the one who cranked it up to a hundred with your fuckin ‘What does a meaning mean’ shit.”

Tod scoffed. “It wasn’t that bad.” 

“Eh.” Rex shrugged.

Tod looked around the room, nodding their head to nothing in particular. “I’m getting a general sense of… vague apathy from the group. It’s strange.”

“Eh.” Rex repeated. “Who cares if you fuckin’ die, man. It’s just a human fuckin’ thing. People die all the time. People die so much they ain’t worried about dyin’ anymore.”

Tod gave the long-haired man a sideways glance. “Of course, someone who goes around killing people would say something like that.”

Rex furrowed his eyebrows, glaring at Tod. “I’ve killed people before. Never said I’m proud of it.”

“Ah.” Tod said. “Must have gotten a wrong impression then.”

“...Yeah, honestly can’t blame ya. I’m a nasty person.” Rex said with a smile that was… almost sad? But Tod couldn’t tell. “Now fuck off. I’m tryna read some… fuckin’ books.”

“I see.” Tod nodded. “You should get some sleep soon, Rex.”

Rex scoffed. “Nah.”


	4. Day Two - Creature Features

When Eric woke up in his bed the next morning and made eye contact with the ceiling wall above him, his instant that was _nope. Nope. Nope._ Not dealing with this, no way. He continued to _nope_ as he swiftly picked himself up from his bed and walked out of his room with no falter in pace, headed straight for the main Lobby.

“I see, you truly are a funky little clown man whom I fail to completely understand.” Was the first thing he heard someone say, - Riley? Yeah, it was Riley, - as he entered the room. She sat opposite from Marco on one of the cafeteria benches as Eric half-noticed a few other faces scattered about the room.

“Yeah, that’s fair.” Marco shrugged. “Speaking of clowns, it’s Eric! How are you doing this morning?”

“Uh, not having an existential breakdown, so, fine I guess.” Eric said. “And I am no clown.” He added, squinting.

“Aw, personally I view the word ‘clown’ as a term of endearment.” Marco smiled. “But, that’s just my opinion.”

“It is good to see you in reasonable condition.” Riley said as she shoved her meticulously brushed hair out of her eyes. “I myself have been able to quell my nerves enough to make sure everything is going smoothly for everyone here.”

“Ahh.” Eric nodded, blinking the last echoes of sleep out of his eyes. “That’s good.”

“Oh yeah, Sam vaped out of existence, I think.” Marco said with a yawn.

Riley cringed. “Ohhh. That’s right. He did.” 

“Hold on,” Eric raised an eyebrow. “Actually, you know what? Not even that surprised.”

“Yes, aside from the odd irritated grunt from him I heard in the hallway every once in a while, there’s been no trace of him outside his room. It’s curious… and quite worrying.” Riley said, putting a finger to her chin.

“He probably just sucked his own dick and died somewhere.” Eva snorted as she walked by and sat down at the table, next to Riley. “I’m part of this conversation now.”

“Hi, Eva.” Marco said.

Eva threw her arms back behind her head. “So, what shenanigans are we up to now?” She asked, grinning.

“Oh, there will be no shenanigans going on here.” Riley said confidently. “Not if I have anything to do about it.” She added with a dramatic hair flip.

“This whole thing is shenanigans.” Eric grumbled. “It’s all shenanigans.”

Marco nodded. “Amen.”

“Honestly thought you’d be pro-shenanigans, Riley.” Eva raised an eyebrow. “What, with your epic movie moments and the like.”

“I’ll have you know that my shenanigans do _not_ the endangerment of innocent lives!” Riley said sternly.

“Lame.” Eva said.

“Aren’t all people in showbiz psychopaths though?” Marco asked quizzically. “Or were they sociopaths? ...Hmm.” He shrugged. “Can’t remember.”

Riley scoffed. “What sensationalist nonsense.”

“I mean, it get's people talking. People just naturally want to know about those kinds of things.” Eric shrugged. “Although I guess some things are better left unknown.”

Marco stared thoughtfully for a moment. “I don’t agree with that statement. That’s a statement I disagree with.”

“Hmm, that’s fair. But suppose, if knowledge…” Eric began, before sighing and shaking his head. “Yeah I’m not in the mood for some sort of philosophical duel right now. Sorry.”

“I wasn’t trying to initiate that, you just brought that on yourself.” Marco grinned. “The Clown is You.”

“You know what _is_ clownish?” Riley asked. “The mysterious door here that’s locked for completely unknown reasons. I feel like we haven’t looked into that as much as we should have.”

“Tsk, tsk.” Eva said, shaking her head. “You need to work on your segue game. That was just disgusting.”

“It was good for what it was worth.” Eric shrugged. “Six out of ten.”

Riley walked swiftly towards the locked door, with Eric following behind, as they saw Hunter and Andre inspecting it, each with varying degrees of puzzled expression.

“Man, this door just… it doesn’t make any sense!” Hunter gave a disconcerted grunt. “What’s the deal with this thing?”

“I mean… there’s not really much for us to figure out.” Eric said, scanning it up and down. “It’s just… a door. A door that’s locked for some reason.”

“Well… yeah!” Hunter nodded. “But! There… there’s gotta be something!”

Eric got up close to the lock, squinting his eyes in inspection. “This… this lock is way too big for any actual key to use on it. Why is it designed like this. Why are the people running this shit-show so fucking extra.”

Andre shrugged. “It fits the aesthetic, I guess.”

“What aesthetic.” Eric winced. “There is no aesthetic.” 

“Hmm… do you think we’d be able to bust the lock open?” Hunter asked, putting a finger to his chin.

“Stop right there, fucko!!!” A familiar, high-pitched voice screeched. Eric and the others turned around to see Monokuma, shaking his fists frantically in cartoonish rage.

Hunter blinked. “Wha. What is that thing.”

“The most annoying security guard of all time.” Eric sighed. “Also a talking bear.”

“Yeah!” Monokuma exclaimed, striking a pose. Andre stared at the little fiend intently. 

“I hate to be that guy, but… the rules _did_ say that assault on property was prohibited. And I assume this counts as… that.” Eric said.

“Yup yup! And the punishment for violating a rule is…” Monokuma jumped with joy. “Execution! The death penalty! Getting axed! No longer being alive! Y’know, that whole shebang.” 

“Woah, hold up,” Jazmine said as she walked past the group, stopping to look at Monokuma with a puzzled face. “I tried to bust open the doors before, but then… oh shit?? Am I dying? Am I gonna fuckin’ die? Oh shit?”

“No, you silly little dumbass bitch!” Monokuma jeered. “You can’t violate a rule before the rule even exists! That’d be fucking stupid!”

“Ah.” Jazmine gave an uncertain nod. “...Thanks, I guess?”

“Alrighty!” Monokuma said. “Well, it seems like there’s still a bunch of garbage whore fucks in this facility I haven’t acquainted myself with yet. Like you!” He said as he pointed at Andre.

“Huh.” Andre said. “Yeah, I suppose you haven’t.”

“I’m Monokuma!” the bear exclaimed. “Bitch.”

“Ah.” Andre nodded, and he began to pat Monokuma on the head. “So, you’re some kinda robot thing, right?”

“Yea-wait, what are you doing.” Monokuma looked up at Andre. “Why are you doing that. Stop doing that. Stop doing that!!!”

“You’re soft.” Andre said. “Your fur is soft. It’s like... real fur. Robots aren’t usually like that.” 

“Huh!??” Monokuma glared at Andre, swiping his hand. “And just what do you know about robots?! Also don’t touch me you gay bitch.”

“No need to be disrespectful.” Andre said, raising an eyebrow.

“Hmph!” Monokuma crossed his arms. “Well I’m gonna yell at some other fucking clowns now. Goodbye shitheads!” And then he poofed away.

“What a wretched little thing.” Riley glared.

Andre rubbed his chin inquisitively. “Well, he’s gotta be here for a reason.”

"Yes, yes indeed.” Riley said, nodding. “I believe he said he was here for security measures? But, still… a talking autonomous bear… or perhaps he’s remote controlled!! Hmm.” 

“Riley. Hun.” Jazmine said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I know you want to get to the bottom of this. I get it. But… it’s a talking bear. You don’t gotta overthink it that much. Not yet.”

“How can one be expected to _not_ overthink a talking bear?” Riley asked, rubbing her temples. “Mmm.” She muttered defeatedly.

“If you’re hoping to find answers, you won’t be able to do that now.” Said a cold voice Eric heard from someone walking by. Oh, it was Sam. Of course it was Sam. Wait, Sam?

“Ah, you’re back.” Jazmine grimaced. “Where’d you even run off to anyway?” She asked, raising an eyebrow. Sam did not answer her question. Instead, he simply blinked and walked away.

“Wha.” Eric furrowed his eyebrows. “What was that about.”

“Ah. He’s tryin’ to be all mysterious-like.” Andre nodded. “I get it.”

“But… what reason would he have to do that?” Riley wondered out loud.

“I think he’s trying to be scary.” Eric winced. “It’s not working.”

“Damn, didn’t think he’d have to try too hard to do that.” Jazmine said.

Everyone nodded half-heartedly in agreement, a silence hanging amongst them. 

“Y’all don’t gotta be on his case so much, y’know.” Andre finally said. “He’s just a creepy little kid.”

“Yeah, but like… we’re stuck in a mysterious death-dome, and he’s acting… like that.” Hunter said. “It is kinda worrying!”

Andre stood thoughtfully for a moment, and there was, again, silence. “Don’t worry.” He said, finally, with a small smile. “If he tries to pull anything, I won’t let him.”

\----

Rosetta was a curious one, having spent the whole morning wandering about with nothing to really do. It was quite strange!

Eventually, for one reason or another, she found herself stroll into the game room, where she found Sora fiddling with an arcade cabinet, looking up at the old Atari-esque graphics on the screen.

“Ah!!” Sora’s head whipped around as she noticed Rosetta enter. “Hi Roro!” She said, beaming.

Rosetta raised an eyebrow. “Ro. Ro?” She tilted her head in confusion. 

“Yeah!! Roro!” Sora nodded enthusiastically. “A cute nickname for my cute robot friend!!”

“Aaaa!! Aaa!!!” Rosetta’s arms started shaking in excitement. “Well you are my cute human friend!” She smiled.

“Aww!!” Sora giggled with a wide smile. “So. How are you doing?” She asked, clasping her hands together.

“Ah! Hmm.” Rosetta stood, thinking for a moment. “I am doing well!” She finally determined. 

“That’s good!” Sora said, her smile unfaltering.

“How are you doing, Sora?” Rosetta asked. “I didn’t hear much from you last night. I was kinda worried!”

“Oh, oh!! I’m…” Sora blinked. “I was having a rough time last night, yeah. But!! I’m gonna make sure everyone here is safe and that I can be the best friend possible!!” She exclaimed, striking a victorious pose. 

Rosetta smiled. “That is very kind of you, Sora!” She said.

“Thanks!!!” Sora beamed. “I’ll do my best!!!” 

Rosetta pumped her fist in agreement, (or just general enthusiasm), as she walked over to the game Sora was playing. It had simplistic sprite graphics coated in garish colors, and amidst the bright clashing of greens and oranges in the background was a simplistic sprite of a person - the player character, as evidence by its movements lining up with Sora’s control inputs - standing at the bottom left corner of the screen, with an abstract monster character at the top right separated from the player by a large maze filled with scattered items.

Rosetta stared wide-eyed at the screen as the player character collected items that vaguely resembled ropes, levers, and pulleys from across the maze, and arranging them into some sort of abstract trap as the monster slowly approached. “So this is some kind of monster hunting game?” She asked.

“Yep!” Sora said. “It’s an old game from my grandparents that I played when I was little! It doesn’t look like much, but the trap-building system is really intricate and clever!” Rosetta watched as the monster crept along the maze until it stepped on a lever connected to a rope, which caused the rope to fling around and trip the monster, sending it rolling straight forward into a dead-end where it got caught in… something that looked vaguely cage-like.

“This game looks interesting!” Rosetta exclaimed as the level ended.

“Yeah yeah!” Sora said. “Basically, the monster has a set path that it travels for each level, and you have to use your surroundings to offset the monster’s path and trap him. You never kill the monster though!”

“Ah, I see!” Rosetta grinned. “Can you be friends with the monster?”

Sora put her finger to her chin. “Hmm, no, I don’t think you can. I wish you could though!”

“Yeah…” Rosetta said sullenly, before her face lit up. “Ooh! Maybe you can hack the game so that you and the monster can be friends! Because you’re super smart!”

“Maybe!” Sora said. “But, I dunno. I was never any good with game design. Also, destruction of property is against the rules, and this could count as that!”

“Oh, you’re right.” Rosetta said. “Well, I’m gonna see what everyone else is up to. Have a nice day, Sora!” 

“You too, Roro!” Sora beamed, as Rosetta strolled through the exit.

\----

As the Killing Game was already one day in, Malissa had decided to regularly keep watch on the different areas of the facility. While it did feel good to be conscientious in this scenario, deep down she knew that it was little more than just glorified pacing. As she stopped by the Infirmary, she saw Vince sitting on one of the beds, looking somewhat uncomfortable.  
“Ah, Vincent.” Malissa said with a curious look. “Whatever are you doing here?”

“Oh! Uh, Mal, right?” Vince said, pushing his shaggy hair away from his face. “I’m just, uh. Thinking. Y’know.”

“I see…” Malissa nodded. “But, why here? If you plan on getting up to any schemes, I must make clear that I will not let you carry them out any further.”

“Oh, no, no!” Vince shook his hands rapidly, giving an awkward smile. “It’s just. Uh. Hospitals always freaked me out, y’know?? They just. Make me really uncomfortable. Always have.”

Malissa raised an eyebrow. “Hmm? But if that’s the case, then why are you making yourself stay here? Surely making yourself _more_ on edge would not be helpful in this situation.”

“No, no, no- you’re missing the point!” Vince said. “It’s to help train my brain to deal with shit that freaks me out! Cause this is, like, a freaky situation and all, right? I gotta like, make sure I can handle this stuff.”

“Ahh, I understand.” Malissa said, smiling sweetly. “I admire your resilience, but… you shouldn’t force yourself to stay in an environment that makes you uncomfortable just to help ‘make you stronger.’ I doubt it’d help in the long run.”

“Hah, you’re right. You’re right! This is stupid. I’m, uh, sorry about this.” Vince said.

“Are you doing alright, Vincent?” Malissa asked, giving him a concerned look. 

“Uhh, I mean, I guess?” Vincent shrugged. “It’s just, like, a freaky situation, obviously, and I’m just kinda confused?? About everything??? And like, scared too, of course, but the confusion kinda overshadows that?? Is that weird??”

Malissa shook her head. “No, not at all. I feel the same way, I think. I’ve been keeping watch of the area to make sure nobody’s plotting to murder, but really, I think everyone here is just too disoriented to actually _do_ anything.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Vince said. “I get that.”

“I see.” Malissa nodded. “Would you like me to stay with you here, or?...”

“Nah, nah, you’re right, this isn’t gonna do much for me.” Vince shook his head as he stood up. “I mean… this is really the bare bones minimum for a hospital-like setting anyways. I’m not really getting the feeling of creeping dread that I was going for.” He added as he looked around the room from corner to corner, slowly making his way for the door.

“Yeah, I was about to say.” Malissa chuckled. “Stay safe, Vince.”

“You too, Mal!” Vince said, shooting finger guns at her as he walked backwards out the door. “It is, uh, okay if I call you Mal, right?”

Malissa smiled. “Of course.”

\----

Eric had spent much of the day kicking about the main lobby as people slowly came in and out, as if through a rotating door that didn’t exist. He was seated at one of the cafeteria tables when an excited voice suddenly shot through the room, as Eric looked to see Sora running enthusiastically towards them.

“Ah, Sora.” Tod, who was sitting opposite Eric at the table, turned to see the tiny monster hunter. “It’s good to see you out and about. Are you doing well?”

“Mmhmm! Mmhmm! I’m doing good!!” Sora nodded. “Anyways, I wanted to come here because!! I had an idea!!” 

“Please, do tell!” said Dakota, who was seated next to Eric. 

“Alright, alright, okay so!!” Sora began. “I was looking through my room, and guess what I found!!” She pulled a hand out from behind her back to reveal three crisp DVD cases. “Yo!! Guys!! We gotta do a movie night.”

“Ah.” Eric said. “I mean, yeah. Sounds like a good idea to me.”

“I believe so as well!!” Dakota said, clasping his hands together. “I’m sure it would be great for everyone here!”

“Heck yea!!!” Sora pumped her fist in the air. “Group bonding!!!” 

Tod pushed up their glasses. “Hmm, it would probably be good for everyone to be brought together for a group gathering as well. It’d definitely help lessen paranoia within the group.” 

“Eghh.” Rex, who took a seat opposite of Dakota, interjected with one of his typical angry noises. “And what if someone doesn’t show up? Then they’re up to somethin’. Or axed. Whattaya gonna do then?” 

“Nobody is going to do anything.” Sora said coldly, as she looked Rex dead in the face. It was then that Eric noticed from the corner of his eye that Sam was watching the group intently. 

After a chilling pause of silence, Rex shrugged. “Ehh, you’re probably right. This joint’s fulla weaksauce scrubs. And I know I ain’t killin’ nobody.”

“I’m glad we can agree!” Sora smiled, reverting to her normal, cheerful tone. Eric blinked.

“Movie night sounds cool.” Jazmine said from the far end of the cafeteria bench. “What movies are we watchin’?”

“Oh, mostly monster and creature movies and stuff, because, y’know!!!” Sora started doing some odd jazz-hands like expression towards herself. “It’s kinda my thing!!”

“Ah, yeah, of course.” Jazmine smirked, shooting Sora a finger gun. “Gotcha.”

“So, how about we do it tonight?” Sora asked.

Eric shrugged. “Not like any of us have any other plans.”

“Yeah.” Rex said. “See ya fuckos there.”

“Alright!!!” Sora exclaimed, smiling gleefully. “Please don’t say rude words though.”

\----

Hours crept by uneventfully until, finally, everyone gathered in Sora’s room for the movie night. There was no set time for the event, but at one point after dinner everyone simultaneously decided it was time to start. Surprisingly, everyone did show up, although Sam was once again simply standing in the background with his stone-cold stare.

The first movie was an alien movie that Eric was unfamiliar with. It’s atmosphere was laced with creeping suspense at every turn, that ultimately vanished when the poorly built alien animatronics jumped on-screen. Eva cackled at the sight of the creatures, and scattered chuckles emerged from other members of the group as well.

“Y’know, this movie is really unrealistic, logistically speaking.” Tod said as the film reached its climax. “It’s irresponsibly close-minded to assume that unimaginable creatures from the vast unknown would be killed so easily with a weapon so simple.”

“Ehh, there’s a constant with all living creatures.” Rex folded his arm behind his head. “Shoot ‘em with a big fuckin' gun, they die.”

“Hahaha, ok Rex.” Jazmine laughed nervously.

The movie ended on a hazy sunset shot on the horizon of a new planet, the heroes looking onwards after defeating the alien threat. But there was no victorious crescendo of music, or inspiring closing line. Only ambient sounds and slow, crawling violins as the screen faded to credits.

Hunter squinted at the screen. “...I don’t get it.” He admitted.

“Genocide is bad.” Eva shrugged.

The next movie was pretty uneventful, a second-rate action movie riddled with bad computer effects and cheesy explosions. Riley scoffed every time an object randomly burst into flames with no consequence, and the group worked intently to try and dissect the film’s lore. 

“Wait, so hold up. Hold up.” Vince said. “So, they’re making the shape-shifting spy monsters in the factory from earlier, right? That has to be what’s going on.”

“Yes, obviously.” Marco nodded.

“Mm.” Tod shook their head. “No, I don’t think so. The factory must’ve been a red-herring, there’s no way it had the capacity to make _that_ many creatures.”

“But wait, weren’t the monsters like, multiplying n’ splitting off or somethin’?” Hunter asked. “Then you’d only have to make one.”

“But surely, a single initial organism can only sustain duplication for so long.” Tod stated.

“Indeed!” Riley said. “And what if something happened to the first monster before it was able to replicate itself? Then the experiment would fail for sure, and all the work done to create it would be wasted. It’s simply impractical.”

“What I don’t get is,” Eva began. “How is the hero able to figure all this shit out? He’s obviously a total inexperienced meathead who’s been stumbling his way through the entire movie, and somehow he’s able to uncover the entire conspiracy.” 

“He has skills.” Andre said. And that was the end of that.

The final movie was another monster movie, but it was different then the previous ones. There was very little footage of the actual monster, (as opposed to the cover, where it was bold front-and-center,) instead, the beast spent most of the movie creeping around invisibly, terrorizing the main characters and separating them into smaller and smaller spaces to kill them off.

In one particular scene, one of the lead characters - a young, apprehensive brunette woman - was trapped in a small room the size of a closet, facing a mirror. It was as if the camera was sucked into the woman’s own claustrophobia, as she stared into the mirror, her chest heaving and blotchy make-up streaming down her face. 

Jazmine is visibly uncomfortable.

At this point, the monster slowly makes itself visible. Its long fingers like skinny, sharp tendrils that were practically cutting through the screen. The woman is crying hysterically. The monster’s hands are circling around the woman, grazing the skin on her arm like razor blades.

Jazmine is backing up closer to the wall, her eyes wide.

The monster’s hands wrapped around the woman’s neck. The mirror breaks.

Jazmine’s breathing started to speed up unsteadily. “Haha!! Ha!! Um.” She stood up, shaking. “I’m gonna. Uh. I’m gonna step outside for a minute. Is that okay?” 

Sora paused the movie. “Sure!! Um, is it okay if I come with you? Just to be safe, y’know!!” 

“Oh, uh, yeah.” Jazmine nodded, her eyes darting wide open in realization. “You probably should. Do that.” She said, and followed Sora out the room.

“You know, I know you’d never try to kill anyone or anything!” Sora said after they exited the room. “I just. You don't seem to be doing too well. Are you okay??”

“Oh, y-uh, yeah definitely.” Jazmine laughed nervously. “Just, got, uh psyched out by the movie, y-y’know?? Scary.”

“Ahh, I see.” Sora said. “Do you want me to stay out here with you until you feel better?” 

“Yes, please.” Jazmine said. “Sorry about this. It’s… stupid.”

“It’s not!!!” Sora shook her head rapidly. “If the movie is making you feel uncomfy, you shouldn’t be forced to watch it!! I just wish you told me about this sooner…”

“Sorry.” Jazmine said.

“Jazmine, listen to me!!” Sora urged, putting her hands on the taller girl’s shoulders. “You didn’t do anything wrong, okay?”

Jazmine took a deep breath. “...Okay.” She finally said.

“...Is it ok if I give you a hug?” Sora asked after a brief moment of silence.

“Yeah.” Jazmine nodded. “I’d like that.”

Sora quickly gave Jazmine a tight hug, to which she reciprocated. When she pulled away, Jazmine gave another nervous chuckle, stopping a moment to think. “...Hey Sora.” She finally said. 

Sora’s eyebrows perked up. “Hmm?”

“Thanks.” Jazmine said, smiling. “For being so friendly and open with everyone. I think we really need that.”

“Ahh, of course!” Sora beamed. “It’s really nothing. It’s just, y’know!! Love and kindness!!! It’s important!”

“Yeah.” Jazmine said. “Yeah, it is.” She blinked, looking around the dark hallway outside of the room. “We should, uh, probably go back inside, but I think I’m done with movie night.”

“Alright!” Sora smiled. “Let’s go.”

As the two walked back into Sora’s room, the movie was playing again, fortunately at the end credits. 

“Ahh!” Riley turned around to see the two. “Good to see you both! We were starting to get worried!”

“Yeah.” Eric agreed. “What was going on there?”

“I just got a bit psyched out by the movie.” Jazmine shrugged. “No biggie.”

“Ahh, I get that.” Eric said. “Are you feeling better?”

“Oh, hell yeah.” Jazmine smirked. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Well, I feel like our movie night has been a pleasant experience otherwise.” Malissa smiled. “Sorry, Jazmine, we really probably shouldn’t have watched all these horror movies in a time like this…”

“Nahh, it suits the mood. It’s poetically fitting!” Eva smirked. “Tod, back me up here.”

“I will not.” Tod said.

Eva scoffed. “Pussy.”

“Don’t be rude!!!” Sora shouted.

\----

After the group had agreed the movie night was over, everyone went back to their own respective rooms. As Eric once again stared at the ceiling in attempt to sleep, his mind began to wander. As he glanced around through half-lidded eyes, the room seemed like it was growing darker, and darker, until it disappeared into a vast, pitch-black landscape where he could almost see monsters lurking at every corner.

_No,_ Eric thought. _That's just fucking stupid._


	5. Day Three, Part One - Spirit Box

**_”ATTENTION, ALL KILLING GAME PARTICIPANTS. PLEASE REPORT TO THE LOBBY IMMEDIATELY.”_ **

That was the first thing Eric heard upon waking up that morning.

“Uh, fuck, sure???” Were the first words that left his mouth as his internal monologue scrambled into coherence. 

As he shuffled out of bed, Eric remembered that this was, curiously, the first he’d heard of that robotic automated voice since the morning they arrived. Although, he thought, if Monokuma had made the announcement, people would’ve been less likely to take it seriously. But then what was the purpose of Monokuma being there in the first place? Was it solely there to uphold the traditions of the Danganronpa show, if he was even from that show? If that show even existed in the first place? The more Eric thought about the situation, the less it made logical sense as to how it was formulated and what purpose it served and oh he was at the Lobby now.

“Ah, Eric!!” exclaimed Dakota, who was the first person to spot him enter the room. “It’s good to see you! How are you holding up?”

“Ehh.” Eric shrugged. “Good enough, I guess.”

“That’s good to hear.” Dakota smiled. “What sort of strange announcement do you think will take place here?” 

“With the freaks running this place, it honestly could be anything.” Eric gave an empty chuckle. 

“Ah, yes! Precisely!” Dakota said. “In that case, we should be prepared for anything! Expect the unexpected!” He added triumphantly, putting on an overconfident grin. “Aha. That. Would be correct, no?”

“Uh, yeah.” Eric said, raising an eyebrow. 

“Truly!” Dakota nodded.

“We, uh, _are_ on TV right now, right?” Vince asked, glancing about the walls of the lobby, coated with cameras. “Heh, must be a pretty boring show.”

“I suppose from an outsider’s perspective, it would be.” Tod pushed up their glasses. “Do you suppose anyone is doing anything about this production from the outside?” 

“We don’t even know if word’s gotten around about it yet, really.” Eric said, furrowing his brow. “If you really think about it, we don’t really know anything about what’s going on here.”

“There is… a lot of uncertainty here, yes.” Tod sighed. “I’d say we should work to find whatever answers we can here, but that seems to be impossible at the moment. Right now our priority should be making sure that everyone stays alive.”

“Indeed!” Dakota raised her index finger in the air. “If there is a method to escape with the survival of all our friends here, than we must completely ensure that course of action! Even if it means… waiting it out here.” Her voice faltered as he glanced around the room.

“But then do we just wait here in confusion and anticipation?” Eric asked. “I just… don’t know what we’re supposed to do?”

“We aren’t supposed to do anything.” Said a new voice - Oh lord, here was Eva, barging in again. “The people running this shitshow obviously wouldn’t put us in a position where we’d actually have a legitimate chance of finding a way out, would they? No, that wouldn’t make any fuckin’ sense.”

“But, uh, if that’s the case… I don’t really see the point??” Vince scratched the back of his neck. “I mean, they’re not even giving us anything to do here? It looks like they’re kinda just stringing us along…”

“Exactly.” Eva said. “People eat that shit up.” 

After that, the conversation was firmly killed, as the last few stragglers made their way to the lobby. To nobody’s real surprise, Sam was the final person to make it to the lobby, wearing his same stone faced expression that was untouched by the scattered scrutinizing glares that reached him.

“Hey, Sam.” Eric said.

“Ah, Eric.” Sam raised an eyebrow at him, and by proxy the rest of the group as well. “And how have you been holding up? Just as clueless as ever, it looks like.”

“You’re just getting on your high horse because you know shit the rest of us don’t.” Eric rolled his eyes. “Or you think you do.”

“Ah,” Sam chuckled, cracking a vicious smirk. “And is that so?” 

“Man.” Rex grumbled. “Fuck all y’all. Shut the fuck up, like forreal.”

“Guys!!!” Sora shouted, her voice bouncing across the room. “Don’t be rude!!!”

And after that, the screen flickered on.

“Oh my god?!?” Are the first words that blare through its speakers as Mona appears on the screen. “I tell you guys to show up here “immediately??” What part of “immediately” don’t you fuckers understand??? Oh my god??? What the fuck???”

“Mona! It’s been a minute. Hi.” Marco said, waving at the monitor. “Fuck you.”

“Yeah, mmhmm.” Mona nodded. “I guess it’s good to fill up some more time with your pointless conversations on trying to figure out the secret about this place, whatever the fuck that means, but we’re done with that here! We have things to get done here, baby!!” She exclaimed, pointing her index finger in the air. “Buuut… I suppose some catch-up wouldn’t hurt. So! How have you guys been doing without me? Anything important on your minds?”

“Yeah.” Eric raised his hand. “Uh, first off, Monokuma. Who is that. Why is that.”

“Why is he fluffy?” Hunter added.

“All great questions!” Mona said, shooting finger guns through the screen. “And, well, words taken from the man himself, you can’t have a killing game without a Monokuma!”

“Hey, uh, what’s the point of all of this?” Jazmine asked. “Like, just, in general, y’know?”

“My own sadistic amusement!” Mona said with glee. “It really ain’t that deep.”

“Ah.” Jazmine rolled her eyes. “Okay.”

“Alright!!” Mona clasped her hands together, a wicked grin stretching across her face. “Now that that dumbshit is over with, we can-”

“Ahh!!!” Rosetta suddenly raised her hand up high. “I also have a question!!”

“Ugh.” Mona grimaced. “Fine. What is it.”

“How do you Beat The Mastermind?” Rosetta asked. 

“Ah.” Mona raised an eyebrow. “That?”

“Yes!” Rosetta nodded. “You said that was the alternate method of escape, other than trying to kill someone. So how would we do that? I wanted to know.”

“Ah, yes, yes of course you do.” Mona nodded. “But hey!! We’re not far enough into the game for that!! We can’t just artificially speed up the pacing like that, it’s unheard of!!”

“But, uh. Isn’t that what you were trying to do?” Marco asked.

“Shut the fuck up you cock-sucking twink-ass bitch.” Mona glared through the screen.

“Okay.” Marco said.

“And with that, there is _one_ question you all have that I can actually answer for you!” Mona said, smiling at the camera. “I’m sure you all are curious about the mysteriously locked door?”

“Oh, yeah!” Hunter said. “We were trying to figure that out just yesterday!”

“Of course you were, dumbass. I saw the whole thing.” Mona griped. “It was on live broadcast! But anyways, the mysteries of that door will be opened to you just now!!” She added with a snap of her fingers, and suddenly the lock on the mysterious door unclipped itself and fell to the ground in a slump.

Eric’s eyes darted to the door, which seemed to open itself ever so slightly with a creaking noise. Everyone stared in apprehensive suspense at the mystery box that had just been opened to them.

“Well??” Mona asked after about 10 seconds of waiting. “What’s the big idea?! Go in there already!! Otherwise you’ll never know what you’ll find!”

“How do we know that what’s inside there isn’t going to, y’know.” Eric raised an eyebrow as he glared at the screen. “Kill us?”

“Aww, do you really think that low of me, Eric??” Mona pouted. 

Eric shrugged. “Kinda, yeah.”

“You haven’t exactly given us much reason to trust you.” Tod said. “This entire set-up _is_ based around killing off members of our group, is it not?”

“I mean, _yeah_ , but like, come on! Having you guys just unceremoniously walk into a death trap would be so narratively unsatisfying!!” Mona said angrily. “You gotta give me some credit, I know how to pace a show. And giving you guys two whole days just to do nothing but mope around is wearing out on our audience! Something has to happen!!”

“Well then, if that’s the case.” Sam pushed up his glasses, before gesturing towards the door with a grin on his face. “Shall we?”

Everyone nodded or made vague noises of agreement, as they walked slowly through the door. When the group entered, they were met with a smorgasbord of various brightly mis-colored items. There were scattered swords and scepters lining the floor in neat rows, shelfs full of vases and pots adorned with pink and blue and green flowers and nonsense patterns, bright red wooden planks line the back wall as the floor was adorned with shattered computer monitors, candy-coated skulls, old burnt note-books and backpacks, and pitch black heart-shaped boxes, all meticulously arranged in a circle on-top of the room’s glossy crimson carpet, as another TV screen was firmly planted on the wall, showing Mona grinning ecstatically.

“Well, this is certainly an assault to the eyes.” Malissa grimaced.

“Yeah! _Buuuut_ that’s not the important part!” Mona said, pointing at the group through the screen. “We’ve hit a milestone, my friends! This is your first **motive!** ”

A strange silence hung over the group as everyone glanced around in confused fear. Sam’s eyes widened as he stared intently at the screen.

“Yes, yes! More specifically,” Mona cleared her throat before clasping her hands together. “In order to unlock the motive, you must finish this challenge! **A secret key is hidden somewhere inside this room, and YOU have to find it!** ” She declared, as the door shut behind them.

Sam furrowed his brow as his face twisted into a befuddled snarl. “...Ah.” Was all that he said.

“Once you find the key, you can use it to unlock a secret box that will give you more information about the Killing Game! So, without further ado!!! Three… two… one…” Mona started counting down on her fingers as her wicked smile shook in excitement. “GO!!!”

After Mona gave her signal and flickered off the screen, Hunter immediately started racing around the room in search for the key, quickly followed by Vince, Jazmine, and Riley. Andre and Tod carefully inspected every corner of the room, as Marco focused his efforts on splitting open a bright pink and yellow skull.

“You, uh.” Andre raised an eyebrow at the tattoo artist. “Sure it’s in there?”

“Of course it is.” Marco said intently. “It fits in perfectly with their whole aesthetic.”

Eric started to run towards the wooden planks, jabbing himself in the foot from stepping on the objects on the ground and nearly tripping over a katana. He pulled one of the bright red slabs out of its place and looked behind it, but found no luck. Turning back around, he saw Eva sitting on the floor, fiddling with one of the blades.

“Jeez, who keeps all this stuff around?” Eva snickered, swinging the sword back and forth, before peering to her side. “Oh, hey, Mystery Boy. I thought you were into all this game shit? Why aren’t you doing anything?”

“Ah.” Sam’s gaze turned ever-so-slightly to meet the comedian, not moving from his idle stance with his finger to his chin. “This is just a waste of time. A pointless red herring.”

“Is that so?” Eva’s grin twisted as she rubbed her hands together. “You seem pretty confident in that! Y’know, your faith in this playing out like one of your weeb game shows is honestly hilarious.” 

“Well, the fact of the matter is, _I_ know what’s going on here, and you don’t.” Sam grimaced as he walked away from, stepping over pieces of broken vases.

“That really isn’t something you’d want to be saying right now.” Eric said, glaring at Sam. “Doesn’t put you in the best light, my guy.”

Sam rolled his eyes. “I really couldn’t care.” He scoffed as he made his way to the door and turned the knob, only to find the door unmoving, held in place with the unpleasant click of the lock.

“Aha!” Dakota exclaimed, dropping the pair of books she was thumbing through from her hands. “It looks like your devious plan to evade us has been foiled once again!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Jazmine nodded absent-mindedly. “Hey, do you think I could get away with stealing one of those swords?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Eva smiled, waving her katana around haphazardly. 

“Aw, damn it!” Hunter said as he dropped another pot on the ground, that yielded nothing more than shattered bits of clay. “Where the hell did they even hide this thing? It’s ridiculous.” He then turned to Rosetta, who was curiously strolling around the room, dodging other people in their frantic chases. “Ah, ey, Ro! You’re a robot, don’t you have some, like, built-in metal detector gizmos you can use?”

“Ah, that is a great idea!” Rosetta nodded. “But, there are so many objects here, they’re interfering with my sensors! And since I cannot isolate the material of the key in my sensors, I cannot locate it! I’m sorry.”

“Nah, it’s fine.” Hunter said. “Y’know, there’s a lotta neat stuff here, if I’m being honest.” He said, glancing around the room. “Shame it had to go to waste.”

“Yeah, like the swords!” Rosetta beamed.

“Rosetta no.” Hunter laughed nervously.

“Why are you all so fixated on the swords?” Sora raised an eyebrow. “It’s kinda scary!”

“You pussies and your reliance on weapons.” Rex said as he slammed a vase on the ground in a very heavy metal way. “Fucking cowards.”

“Uh, I don’t mean any disrespect, Rex, but.” Hunter grimaced. “You look like a twig, my dude.”

Rex glared at Hunter, his face twisting into a deathly snarl. “I’ll fucking kill you, bitch.”

“Okay.” Hunter sighed.

“Slow your roll there, Esteemed Lord Of Senseless Violence.” Riley said. “Your threats of murder are extremely irresponsible.”

“Do I look like I give a fuck?” Rex turned and glared at Riley, stomping his foot on the ground. “Do I look like I give a fuck about any of this shit, you fuckin’ bitch? You fuckin’ stupid fuckin’ bitch? Do I?” He clenched his shaking fists as his face contorted into a snarl that would suit an angry dog more than a human. “I’ll fucking kill you. Don’t fuck with me.”

“Rex. My guy.” The angry, long-haired creature froze at the spot as Andre put his hand on his shoulder. Rex whipped around to face him, nearly decking him in the face.

“Are you okay?” Andre asked, giving him a serious look in his eyes.

“Who… who… what the fuck kinda question is that?” Rex said, pushing his arm away. “Fuck off. Fuck this.” He added as he walked over to the door, which continued to be locked. “Oh god damn it. Fuck. Shit. Bitch.” 

“R-Rex?” Sora stepped apprehensively towards him, a look of concern on his face. “Is there something you wanna-”

“Just give him some time, Sora.” Eric said, shaking his head. “Now, has anyone found that key yet?”

“No.” Marco said bitterly. “Unless it’s a metaphorical key, and not a literal one, in which case, we could have already found it.” His calm, composed demeanor quickly began to crack as he ran a hand through his fluffy mass of ginger hair. “UGH, don’t you just _love_ games?”

“I wouldn’t even call it a game, honestly.” Malissa shook her head.

“It’s a senseless game. A pointless game.” Sam spat. “Just mindless filler for us to do because one of us hasn’t dropped dead yet.”

“Please just fucking stop talking Sam.” Eric said. He noticed a vein beginning to make itself very prominent on Sora’s temple.

“So, uh, the key.” Vincent said, chuckling awkwardly. “Finding that! Is what we should be doing.” 

“Yeah, exactly.” Eric nodded. “If nothing else, I don’t wanna be locked in this tiny room for the foreseeable future.”

“As opposed to being locked in the big boring murder house for the foreseeable future?” Eva raised an eyebrow.

Eric rubbed his temples. “Can we, like, cool it on the banter and actually get something _done_ for once? Thank you.” 

As Eric began steadily pacing around the room, he once again felt the jabbing feeling beneath his shoe from stepping on the clatter on the ground. Ah, it must’ve been from the… absolutely nothing that was under his foot. Hmm. 

“What’s up, my dude?” Hunter asked as he absentmindedly shook a skull-shaped bottle of purple paint he’d picked up from one of the shelves. 

“I stepped on something.” Eric furrowed his brow. “That doesn’t exist.”

“Ah.” Hunter said, shooting a finger gun at Eric. “Gotcha.” 

Eric stepped back and forth on the rough carpet of the room, gradually making his way near the back door. As he reached down on the floor, his twitching fingers gradually met the end of the carpet, and he somehow managed to start lifting it up under the weight of everyone’s feet.

“Wuh.” Jazmine raised an eyebrow as she watched Eric. “What are you-”

“Oh you _have to be_ kidding me.” Marco said through gritted teeth. “It _can’t_ be that simple.” 

“It, uh.” Eric crawled under the carpet, reaching around, until his hand met the sharp point of a clean gold key, facing upwards, halfway lodged between two floorboards. “Yeah, it is.” Eric tried to grab at the key, but his fingers were too big to retrieve the delicate object. After a brief moment of contemplation, with the carpet still draped over him like a curtain, he called out, “Hey, Eva. Can you fetch me one of the swords?”

“Hmm? Why?” Eva asked suspiciously.

“To get the key.” Eric sighed. “It’s… in the floor.”

“Eva, be a dear and just get the man a sword.” Riley said. 

“Well, when you word it that way…” Eva shrugged, tossing a sword under the carpet that landed a few inches too close to Eric’s side for comfort. 

“ _Thank_ you.” Eric said, as he pushed the carpet off of himself, with now the entire rest of the group having moved to the far side of the room opposite him. Now staring intently at the key, Eric brought the sword from between the floorboards and proceeded to draw it out from underneath, pushing the key upwards until it eventually slid out of its wooden prison to freedom, a nasty dent in the floor emerging from where it left. 

As Eric took the key in his hands, the screen on the wall flickered back to life as Mona appeared before them. “Congrats!! You solved the puzzle!! I hope you all enjoyed finding the totally clever solution that was not at all a cop-out in any way!”

Marco’s eye began twitching rapidly. “I am going to jump off a building and break all of my fucking bones.” He said in a low voice. 

“Now, my lovely participants, you have the key to open…” As Mona paused for dramatic effect, a trap-door in the ceiling opened and a small black cube dropped down to the ground with a haphazard clunk. “... **The Spirit Box!** ”

“Ah.” Sam raised his eyebrows. “And this is supposed to be our motive for murder, yes?”

“Please shut the fuck up.” Jazmine said. “Please shut the fuck up.”

Eric picked up the box, turning it around in his hands, and sure enough, he found a small, nondescript keyhole dead center on one of its sides. 

“I guess, I… have to open it, huh?” Eric asked.

Mona winked to the camera. “Only if you want to progress through the game!” 

“It, uh…” Vince rubbed his arms nervously. “It doesn’t look like we have a choice.”

“Making progress is good!” Rosetta nodded. “Let us do so!”

Eric promptly inserted the key into the box, and it opened up to reveal a small, dormant video screen.

“Now…” Mona gazed wide-eyed into the camera, putting on her best spooky voice. “Are you ready to see the horrific contents of… **The Spirit Box???** ”

“Yeah.” Andre nodded confidently.

“No you’re not.” Mona said.

Sam pushed up his glasses, an irritated frown on his face. “ _Surely_ we are.”

“Alright, your opinion doesn’t count, weirdo.” Mona said, scrutinizing Sam through the screen.

Everyone cautiously huddled around the little black screen as it began to play static, before abruptly cutting to a shot of something, something, something something _something something something **some thin g.**_

It was a girl. A young, blue-haired school girl, no older than eighteen. Lying against the wall, on the floor. A grimy, slashed up, bl _oo **dsta i n e d**_ bathroom floor. She’d been stabbed. With a knife. A knife sticking firmly out of her chest, with splatters of red blood everywhere, that took on a pinkish hue under the fluorescent light of the camera.

...aaaahh, _aaahhhh, aaa **AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

What followed next was a barrage of more, increasingly gruesome murders and deaths, young teenagers that looked the same as them or you or me or them, with reds and pinks and blues and greens in their hairs, having been stabbed, strangled, bludgeoned, poisoned, shortly followed by an onslaught of horrific theatrics where more children where shoved into great big ridiculous death machines. Visions of giant man-eating pianos and people being fried and boiled alive, of rocket-shaped prison cells crashing into space and crashing back into earth again, of massive firetrucks and drills and saws and bugs and flames all used for the purpose of killing kids. Killing kids!!! They were killing kids!!!

As the montage kept going and going, with distorted dubstep music getting louder and louder in the mix to the point where it could drown your ears, it

 

Stopped. Suddenly. Just like that. And all that was left was a set of eerie, shaky text on the screen.

**_THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU CHOOSE THE WRONG PATH._ **

**_WILL YOU CHOOSE THE RIGHT PATH?_ **

“Ah.” Sam was the first to speak. “That makes sense now.”

“What the fuck, _what the fuck, **what the fuck?!?!**_ ” Jazmine yelled as she moved to punch Sam square in the jaw, only being barely restrained by Andre. “It _makes sense now?_ What, was this just another elaborate reference to your stupid fucking animes?!?! Fuck that!!! People _died,_ Sam! People _fucking died!!!_ ”

Eric glanced around the room. Riley’s hand had tightly wrapped around her mouth, her eyes grown wide in horror. Vince had been curled up since the video started, his eyes hidden under his sleeves. Rex looked to the ground with a solemn expression. Sora was sitting on the floor, silently shaking, her face expressionless.

“You’re.” Eric turned around, staring dead at the Conspiracy Theorist. “You’re really fucked, Sam.”

“Ah, such eloquent wording, I’m honestly impressed-’

“Shut the fuck up, you ginger rat-ass.” Eva hissed, still grinning her grin. “You’re just angry because you had your dick in your hands the whole time you were watching that video and you don’t know why the rest of us didn’t.”

“Guys.” Andre said. 

“Those were… real people, who really died, weren’t they.” Malissa said in shock.

“I can assure you they were.” Sam nodded.

Eva snarled. “Um, I think we need the opinion of someone who doesn’t spend their free time going on Ted Bundy forums and saying “Rip X.”

“Oh _shut the fuck up,_ Eva.” Sam said with a venomous glare.

“Guys.” Andre said.

“Ah, aha, not so eloquent language there, is it?” Eva cackled. “You really are a fucking dumbass, Ye Olde Intellectual.” 

“Yeah, shouldn’t you, like, have an actual hobby instead of getting super invested in this freakish murder stuff??” Jazmine gagged. “It’s just, fucking, ugh.”

“I don’t have a _hobby_ , I have a _talent_ ,” Sam gritted his teeth. “And I can _assure_ you, I know more about what’s currently happening to us than _anyone else here-_ ”

“ ** _HEY!!!_** ” Andre yelled. “Guys.” 

The room was shocked into silence as Andre’s voice rang out through the walls. Sam and Eva exchanged split-second glares as everyone turned to the Lifeguard in anticipation. 

“Yo.” Hunter was the first to speak up. “What’s up, ‘Dre?” 

Andre gave a beleaguered sigh. “Guys… why y’all fightin’ like this? What y’all fightin’ about?”

“These _insolent buggers-_ ”

“Sam. Buddy.” Andre said. “Stop talking.”

“You-”

“Listen.” Andre firmly cut Sam off once again. “I know shit’s scary, right? I know. Shit’s scary out here. They’re tryna make shit scary here.”

Sam grumbled some unpleasantries to himself as all eyes in the room were focused on Andre. “I know… I know we can’t all be friends. You can’t expect that. I ain’t askin’ for that.” He said. “Friends are tricky. But man… we can’t go on fightin’ like this. It ain’t doin’ us any good, is it? No one here is an enemy.” He nodded, looking sternly at the group. “And no one here needs to be.”

The room went silent for a few seconds as Sam stared wordlessly at Andre. “...Are you absolutely sure?” He asked, with a questioning nod.

“Yeah.” Andre raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Well what if the person who trapped us in this killing game…” Sam rubbed his chin as he spoke in a dark, ominous tone. “Was one of us in this room?”

Andre blinked. “Nah.” He said.

“Uhm, are you sure?” Vince asked. “I don’t wanna be that guy, but… should we really rule out the possibility?”

“There’s already an excessive amount of security measures in this facility for the people running this game to spy on us, having the mastermind be hiding in our ranks would just be impractical and unnecessary. It’d be too high a risk with no reward.” Eric said. “Obviously it’s a possibility we can’t rule out, but you’d have to be a fucking moron to make that assumption.” He added, looking at Sam. 

“Exactly.” Andre nodded. “But be nice.”

“Well said, Andre.” Malissa smiled “From what I can gather, all of us needed that. Thank you.”

“Aha! Yes, my darlings!” Dakota’s face lit up as she pumped her fist into the air. “These pointless feuds shall wither us no more!”

“Yeah…” Sora blinked as she began nodding weakly. “Yeah. Yeah! Yeah!”

“Mm.” Sam winced. 

Malissa chuckled. “As much as I appreciate the reassurance of our teamwork,” She began, smiling sweetly. “May we exit this room? It’s getting quite stuffy in here.” 

Tod went to the door and, sure enough, it gave exit following the twist of the doorknob. Thus, the group left behind the room of now lifeless screens and meaningless clutter.


	6. Day Three, Part Two - Catch Your Breath

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one minor retroactive edit to a previous chapter has been made: Hunter no longer has a british accent because it just. doesn't make sense with the way he talks

After the ordeal in the Challenge Room, Eric made no haste in walking out the door and straight into the hallway leading to the bedrooms. There was nowhere else for him to really go. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, nowhere to go, nowhere, nowhere, the walk nearly went by in milliseconds when he got to his room and-

“Hey.”

“Wh-AHH!?” Eric whipped around in surprise as he nearly crashed through his door backwards. Now facing him was Marco, the Tattoo Artist, giving him a curious look.

“Where were you going?” Marco asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh.” Eric blinked. “To my room to dissociate again, probably.”

Marco nodded. “Ah. I feel that. You probably shouldn’t do that, though. It looks suspicious.”

“I guess you’re right.” Eric sighed. “So, do you wanna just, uh, talk?” 

“Yeah.” Marco said. “Talking sounds nice.”

“Mmhmm.” Eric nodded in agreement. “Ah, right here, or?” 

Marco shrugged. “It’s as good a place as any.” He said, seating himself down on the floor in front of the dorms.

“Well, I guess this way we can catch anyone else trying to have a reclusive episode.” Eric gave a half-hearted laugh as he sat down as well.

Marco smirked. “So-”

“I just _don’t know what to do._ ” Eric said, wide-eyed, as he ran his hands through his hair. “Erm. I’m sorry. I just feel like I can’t do anything and there’s something I should be able to do?? But I can’t?? And I just end up reacting to everything that’s happening but I can’t even do that properly.” He sighed as his head hung low.

“...Yeah, I know.” Marco said solemnly. “But I don’t think anyone’s expecting anything out of you, even if you are the Ultimate Escape Artist. So you shouldn’t feel guilty about it.”

“But I _do._ ” Eric said. “And it sucks and I fucking hate it and I’m so tired and sometimes I’m so tired that I _can’t fucking feel anything_ and-”

“Hey, hey.” Eric felt the tattoo artist’s slender hand gently place itself on his shoulder. “Breathe in. Breathe out. Just do that for me.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Eric nodded, attempting to calm his nerves. “I… know.”

“Alright.” Marco smiled. “I hate it here too, really. I mean, obviously! But it’s… being stuck here, in this game, game with these ugly shambled together variables, being stuck looking like _this._ ” He grimaced, crossing his arms together.

Eric’s eyes widened in realization. “Ah! Wait, is it rude to ask-”

“I’m trans yeah.” Marco said, clasping his hands together. “Tattoo joint I work for won’t let me dress how I want to though, “tiny cute girls” are part of its appeal. Fucking gross. What a convenient time to be kidnapped.” He rolled his eyes and gave an angry grunt.

“And you’ve been… pretending to be cool with it this entire time?” Eric said, furrowing his brow.

“Exactly. It’s psychological warfare. Can’t let other people see your weakness.” Marco tapped his forehead with his index finger. “I only told you because you’re boring enough to not try shit.”

“Hey. That’s not very nice.” Eric frowned. “And a true Warlord of the Mind wouldn’t trust anyone.”

Marco laughed, grinning. “Well I guess I’m not one of those then.” 

“Excuse me.” A pair of footsteps cut through their conversation as Jazmine, the Track Runner, stepped over the two boys’ feet to get to her dorm.

“Hey Jaz.” Eric waved. “You doin’ okay?”

“Yeah.” Jazmine responded flatly.

Marco watched the hoodied girl as she found her bedroom and shut the door behind her. “She’s not.” Marco whispered after a good few seconds.

“Real shit, Mr. Brain Wizard?” Eric smirked, raising an eyebrow. “We should… probably check in with the others at this point.”

“Yeah, we probably should.” Marco nodded, and they proceeded to get up and walk out of the hallway. 

It was a little past 1 PM, so a good chunk of people were hanging around the cafeteria eating something that resembled lunch. 

“Hello there friends!!” Dakota was the first to greet them, unsurprisingly, as he skipped up _really_ close to Eric oh wow.

“Hi Dakota, it’s nice to see you.” Marco smiled. “How are you doing today?”

“I’m feeling quite like my own legendary self today, which is good!” Dakota said as she did a little twirl. “Because if I wasn’t, then the universe would be in cosmic imbalance, you see!” 

“Oh. Yes.” Eric nodded, his face red. “Of course.”

“It’s good to see you’ve regained your confidence, Dakota.” Malissa smiled sweetly. She was sat on the bench, her arm wrapped around Sora, who gave an unsteady smile.

“I’m always like this, I know not what you’re talking about.” Dakota grinned. “Eric, honey, do I not hold the most raw power of anyone in this group?”

“Uhh, I mean, Marco’s pretty smart.” Eric said, shrugging very very _very_ not awkwardly.

“Hmmm. Hmmmmm. Hmmmmmmm.” Dakota put her finger to her chin. “I suppose.”

“It’s good to see you two holding up well.” Riley said. “In… light of what we had to see today, I propose we hold a mandatory meeting here come dinner time, 6:00 PM. Any objections?”

Andre looked up from where he was sitting at the bench to the far left. “Sounds good.”

“Do you… have any further thoughts?” Riley raised an eyebrow.

“Nah.” Andre shrugged. “Sounds good.” 

“Alright then!” Riley clasped her hands together. “Well, I hope to see you all there!” 

\----

Having time to kill, (and with Marco physically forcing him not to spend it dissociating again,) Eric decided to go to the Game Room for some wholesome, family friendly entertainment.

“Look, _all I’m saying is,_ ” Hunter was talking, pointing his hands forward in a ‘I’m trying to prove a point’ sorta way. “It’s statistically probable that there’s _someone_ on the planet who’d be willing to give me a million dollars.”

Eva raised an eyebrow. “For no reason?”

“Yeah!” Hunter said.

“Bitch, what the fuck do you need a million dollars for?” Rex retorted with his signature snarl. “Rich white-boy lookin’ ass.”

“Abolish capitalism.” Eric made his grand entrance. “Hi.”

“Oh, ‘sup Rick!” Eva waved. “How are you doin’?”

“Alright, I guess.” Eric shrugged. “Don’t call me that.”

“I’m going to. You can’t stop me.” Eva said with a mischievous smirk. 

“It’s good to see ya, Eric!” Hunter waved, leaning on the foosball table. “Wanna play ball?”

“Ugh, don’t.” Rex groaned, rolling his eyes. “He’s fuckin’ trash.”

“Hey, hey!” Hunter protested, his hands waving in the air. “It’s not my fault there’s too many knobs to keep track of!!”

“There’s… really not that many.” Eric said, inspecting the table himself.

“ _There is for me!!!_ ” Hunter exclaimed, largely gesturing to his own chest. Rex snickered a little.

“Well, personally,” Eva started giggling to herself as a grin of pure evil stretched unnaturally across her face. “I thought you’d be good at handling rods.”

In the gap where a response to that statement should’ve been, there was instead several seconds too many of awkward silence.

Ultimately, Eva gave a disgruntled sigh and rolled her eyes. “It’s a dick joke.” She conceded. “Laugh.” 

“Nah.” Rex said.

“Well, fuck, thanks for nothing.” Eva gave a defeated smirk.

“Well, I mean…” Hunter put on a flirtatious smirk, winking in nobody’s real general direction. “If we’re being real here…”

“Hunter. Hunter no.” Eric said sternly. “Hunter no.”

“You know what?” Hunter threw his hands in the air. “You guys aren’t being very nice! And I don’t appreciate that.”

Eric rolled his eyes. “You’re lucky you’re hot. Dumbass.”

“Hah!!” Hunter gave a big toothy smile as he pointed at Eric. “You admitted it!” Instant regret.

Eric ultimately gave into playing foosball, but after a few rounds he decided that that was enough clownery for one day. It was definitely _pleasant_ clownery to distract from the existential fear and dread of their situation, but clownery none of the less. 

The next room he decided to check out was the Library. It was looking like it’s… normal library self, with a smattering of books laid across a desk that one Rosetta and Tod were seated at. From the corner of his eye he spotted a hard-cover printing of some religious text, an empty notebook, a graphic novel about some anthropomorphic ducks, and a large book with Monokuma on the cover titled “Crippling Unavoidable Total Abominable Despair for Dummies”. Quality literature.

“Eric!! Eric hi!!” Rosetta smiled brightly at Eric as he entered the room. “Hi Eric!”

“Hi Rosie.” Eric smiled.

“Rosie!!! Whoa!!!” Rosetta beamed as she bought her hands to her face. “So many cute nicknames for me!! Aaaa!!!”

“You've certainly acquired quite a few.” Tod said with a smirk, pushing their glasses up.

Eric shrugged. “Not much you can do with 'Tod’” He said.

“Toddy!!!” Rosetta smiled.

“No.” Tod said sternly.

“So, what are you guys up to here?” Eric asked.

“I was reading through our keepers quite _despairing_ catalog before our friendly neighborhood Robofriend showed up.” Tod said.

“Aaaa!!!!” Rosetta squeaked, shaking her hands frantically. “I am sorry if I disturbed you!!!”

“It's fine, dear.” Tod shook their head. “Wasn't exactly a very enlightening read anyways.”

“Yeah, why were you reading that stuff anyways?” Eric raised an eyebrow. 

Tod shrugged, rolling their eyes. “I thought I would be able to understand our captor's psyche a little better. I thought wrong.”

“Did you really think Mona would make it that easy for you?” Eric chuckled.

“I still don't understand her ways.” Tod said, and that was that.

\----

“It's very good to see you all here at this hour!” Riley said as the clock sat at just a few minutes past six. Surprisingly enough, everyone did show up, (although arriving at a timely fashion didn't help to make Sam look any less suspicious than usual, and the gamers ended up straggling _just_ a bit). “Now, how shall we start this meeting off? I myself have found quite the interesting development.”

“Then you start it off.” Rex said, sticking his tongue out. “Dumb bitch.”

“ _Rude._ ” Riley glared. “But, it seems as good of an idea as any. If I may bring your attention to the challenge room!”

“I, uh. Don't know if I wanna go back there!” Vince said nervously.

“There's no need, dear. Simply look inside!” Riley swung the door open, and everyone turned their head to peer into the room to find it had been completely cleaned up. With the exception of the wood plank jutting up from the ground, it looked exactly how it did when they first entered it. 

“Huh. The staff fixed it.” Hunter said. “Alright.” 

“Yes, but for what purpose?” Riley raised her index finger quizzically. “This room has already been used for what it was needed, so why was this done?”

“It's an oddity.” Malissa said, her finger to her chin. “But… it doesn't look like an important one.”

“Well there has to be _some_ thing.” Riley stated. “Th-”

“Enough of this.” Sam grit his teeth as he sipped a fizzy carbonated drink from a wine glass. “Your pathetic excuse for leadership has done _nothing_ but grasp at straws for escape routes that don’t exist, and will never exist. I’d tell you to stop while you’re ahead, but you haven’t even gotten any farther than the rest of us.” 

“Hey man, maybe we can get a lead out of this!” Vince said. “And even if we can’t, there’s no need to be a dick about it.”

“Oh. Really.” Sam turned to Vince with eyes like blades. “You think such an insignificant occurrence as this could possibly offer us any lead at all? And what would that be, hmm?” He let out a dismissive scoff. “Please. Enlighten me. I’d love to hear.”

“W-Well… I…” Vince stammered, running his hands through his hair. “You see, I thought… I…”

“Sam, please stop pointlessly antagonizing people for once in your fucking life.” Eric butted in, glaring at the bespectacled therapist.

“Oh, thank you for your oh so eloquent words of advice.” Sam said, rolling his eyes. “I truly appreciate it.” A vein began growing on his temple.

“Hey.” Rex spoke up. His voice was dull and completely drained of his usual venom. “Hey Sam.”

“ _What?!?_ ” Sam snarled viciously, turning to face him.

“Stop talking.” Rex spat, his face reverting to his familiar grimace. “You sound like a little bitch.” 

“Oh. Yes. Of course.” Sam sighed as he pushed up his glasses. “I don’t even know what I expected when I saw you open your mouth, you hapless brute. You revile me.” 

Sam continued, picking up his drink from the table as he began pacing about the room. “ _I’m_ the Ultimate Conspiracy Theorist because I actually have the cognitive function to understand what’s going on here! Even if I _am_ surrounded by fourteen useless apes!”

“And what of you, ‘Young Rex?’” Sam gagged as he jabbed his index finger at the long, black-haired man. “You’re nothing but a menace who rants and raves about how much he wants everyone to die and wants himself to die. You’re too much of a coward to even use your own name! How pathetic! H-”

It was at that point that Sam’s body tumbled to the ground as his drink spilled and fizzled on the floor, (the glass miraculously not shattering), on account of the hard, pale fist hitting him square in the face. “Shut the fuck up.” Rex stared wide-eyed as he spoke in a cold, quiet voice. “This is your last fuckin’ warning. You don’t talk to me like that.”

Everyone crowded around the scene as Vince restrained Rex by the arms and Rosetta rushed to clean the spill with a washcloth. 

“What the hell.” Andre sighed disappointedly. “You… you guys…”

“Hey! Hey!” Sora frantically ran between the two. “Don’t do that! Stop doing that! Please!!!”

Sam gave an uneasy cackle as he adjusted his glasses. “You see? You see this? This man is a menace. He’s violent, disgusting filth. A-”

“Sam.” Eric directed the man on the floor sternly. “We’ve had enough. We’re done here, alright? I… still don’t know why you’re even doing this.”

Sam furrowed his brow, but didn’t say anything. Instead he simply picked himself up from the ground, wiping dust off his turtleneck, before shambling to his room.

“ _ **Hey!!!**_ ” Eric chased Sam through the hallway, just getting to Sam’s bedroom door as he slammed it in his face. “Fuckin’!” Eric grit his teeth. “It’s locked. It’s fucking locked! God damn it, Sam!”

Andre gestured for Eric to come back, and he sighed in defeat as he returned to the cafeteria. 

“Well… fuck.” Eva said as she stared wide-eyed at the ground where the almost-fight had occurred.

“If you do not have anything to say.” Malissa looked down sullenly. “You need not enter the conversation.”

“Yeah.” Eva said with a sigh, nodding. “I know.”

“Are you okay?” Vince whispered to Rex as he let go of his arms.

“Eh. Yeah.” Rex shrugged. “Are you?”

“Huh? I…” Vince raised his eyebrows. “I… Yeah, I am.”

“Nah, you’re not.” Rex said. “I can tell.” He then promptly turned around and walked towards the hallway, as Vince gave him a look of confusion, and most of the other eyes in the room were on him as well. “Well, I’m fuckin’... I’m checkin’ out of this shithole. Later.” And with that, he left.

The meeting had ultimately fizzled out after the situation, much to Riley’s chagrin, as everyone ended up slowly exiting the cafeteria. 

As Eric made his way through the hallway to his room, he decided to stop and knock at the door of one Sora Oshiro.

“Hello?” Sora asked as she opened the door, her face lighting up when the two made eye contact. “Oh!!! Eric!!!”

“Hey.” Eric said with a small wave. “Just wanted to check in on how you were doing. It’s been a minute since we’ve really talked.” 

“Yeah, it has!” Sora nodded. “I’m still scared - _really_ scared - but I’m getting better at coping with everything, I think.” Her voice was different, more serene and natural, and she gave a soft smile. “But enough about me!!! How are you??” She added, returning to her usual tone.

“Same, same.” Eric smiled. “Wish there weren’t so many clowns here, though.”

Sora pouted. “Hey, most people are nice!” she protested.

Eric raised an eyebrow. “ _Most._ ”

“Yeah…” Sora sighed. “Well, thanks for checking up on me! I’m gonna get some sleep now. You should too!!!”

“Of course. Anytime.” Eric said, hugging the small girl. “Night.”

“G’night, friend!” Sora said as she gently closed the door.

\----

Eric didn’t get a lot of sleep that night.

He didn’t much sleep a lot of nights, but this was one particularly not-a-lot-of-sleep night. What little sleep he did get was within the hour of the morning alarm, so that was nice.

In the hallway, Dakota was once again the first to greet him, but it was… not like usual this time. 

“E-Eric.” He stammered wringing her hands together. “It’s… good… to see you, darling… I-”

“Dakota. Are you okay?” Eric looked into her eyes with concern as he gently put a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m… n-no. No I’m not okay I’m not okay, I-I saw something horrible and I don’t want to I don’t want to see it again and,” Dakota was speaking through heavy, choking breaths that shook his chest, as he was barely holding back sobs. “But. But everyone has to see it they have to I can’t I dont-”

“What was it?” Eric asked as he gently took Dakota’s hand.

“It-It, It-” Dakota put her free hand to her face and looked away from him. She was crying now. She was crying and she couldn’t cry out the words from his throat, but Eric knew. He knew what he had to say. He knew what he had to see.

“You said… we have to go there, don’t we?” Eric asked solemnly.

“Yes.” Dakota sobbed. “But I don’t want to I can’t I can’t I don’t want to see it again I!!!”

“Shh, I know, it’s okay. I know.” Eric said softly, squeezing Dakota’s hand. “I can… take you back there, if you want me to.” Dakota nodded weakly, looking into his eyes as tears were running down her face.

And so, Eric walked Dakota out of the hallway, supporting him with his arm around his shoulder. When the two entered the Main Lobby, however, Dakota froze at the unusual sight of everyone crowded around the Infirmary, clinging onto Eric’s arm for dear life.

“Oh no.” Dakota shivered. “Oh no oh no they’re all gonna see. They’re all seeing, they’re all _no no no no-_ ”

“Dakota. Listen to me.” Eric looked straight into her eyes. “Breathe. Okay? Just focus on breathing. Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out.”

Dakota shakily struggled to breathe, only barely being able to steady the pounding of her chest. “We have to go in there.” He finally said.

“I know.” Eric nodded.

“I can’t.” Dakota cried. “I can’t I don’t want to see it I don’t want to. I can’t I can’t see it again.”

Eric squeezed his hand again. “I’m sorry. We have to go. But… I’m not gonna leave you, okay?” He said.

“Please don’t.” Dakota pleaded. “I… Let’s go.” He said, and Eric nodded wordlessly.

As the two joined the crowd, Eric held tightly onto Dakota’s hand as he looked inside the infirmary, and when he looked inside he saw, when he looked inside he saw, when he looked inside when he looked inside he saw!!!

Eric brought his free hand to his mouth as he staggered backwards. It had to be that. Of course it had to be that. It had to be that. Why was it that? Why did it have to be that?

It was laying across the floor. It’s ankle was unnaturally bending sideways. A smattering of pills sprawled around its body, the bottle in one hand and a note in the other. Its hair - its long, black hair - was messily covering its face, but all they could hide now was a pair of lifeless orange eyes.

It was Rex. It was dead. Rex was dead.


	7. Day Three, Part Three - Murder on my Mind

Eric didn’t have words to react to what he had just seen. Most of the people there didn’t, really, but he couldn’t even muster the horrified screams and gasps to substitute that everyone else could. 

“Ah. Our last stragglers have finally arrived.” Sam was the first one there to directly speak to Eric, his face cold and expressionless. “Now we should be able to begin.”

“Sam, I… Sam…” Was all Eric was able to say. “You-”

“Oh, please.” The Conspiracy Theorist scoffed. “Surely you don’t believe that _I_ did it.”

“Uh!!” Hunter spoke up in Eric’s stead. “Kinda, yeah!!”

“You are definitely the most suspicious.” Riley said sternly.

“Are you even hearing yourself, Riley?” Sam nearly started laughing. “You do movies. I thought you of all people would know how this works.”

“This!! Fucking isn’t!!” A vein started growing on Eric’s temple as his fists started balling up. “One of your!! Fucking!! Shows!!!”

Whatever retort that Sam surely planned to make was cut off by a loud beeping sound as Monokuma poofed into the scene in the middle of the crowd. “Hello fucko fucks!!!” It screeched. “I am here!!”

“What for?!” Vince gave an anguished groan. “We already have a murder, a _murder_ on our hands!! Why do you have to come in and make things worse?!?” 

“I’m here to help, you dumbshit whore bitch dumbass!” Monokuma exclaimed as it stared at Vince with its creepy creature eyes.

“Wouldn’t Mona be doing that?” Marco raised an index finger. “I thought she’d be present for such an event as this.”

“Oh no!! She is very busy!” Monokuma said, nodding rapidly. “Awful bitch cunt, leaving me here to deal with this Bastard Gang!” 

“Mmhmm.” Marco nodded. “And what exactly are you here to help us with?” 

“Enforce the rules!!!” Monokuma said as it waved its arms haphazardly in the air. “Rules are very important!”

“Indeed.” Sam said, pushing his glasses up.

“Silence, virgin.” Monokuma said.

“Well then,” Eric raised an eyebrow. “If you’re here, you might as well actually do your job and explain the rules.”

“I was _getting to that!_ ” Monokuma grumbled. “So, now that a murder has been committed in the facility, your job is to collect evidence to use in the trial to find the killer! At the end of the trial, a vote will be held to determine the culprit! If you vote correctly, only the culprit will get executed, but…” Monokuma’s grin extended across its face as it giggled with glee. “If you pick the wrong person, the killer gets to escape, and every other fucker here gets to drop dead!”

“...That Is! Very scary!” Rosetta said, breaking a cold silence that was shared throughout the room.

“But it isn’t anything we don’t already know.” Sam scoffed. “Your presence here is useless.” 

"Allow me to finish, Cuntothy!" Monokuma cleared his throat. "Now, since I know you clowny bitch fools haven't been keeping your MonoTablets on your person, I've nabbed them for you! You might wanna look at them!!!"

The bear swiftly passed out fifteen- fourteen, not fifteen tablets to their owners, then disappeared once again. As Eric opened his, he was greeted with a startling screen of Rex's face, obscured by an obnoxious pink X. Accompanying the image was text that read:

**MONOKUMA FILE #1  
** Victim: Young Rex  
Cause Of Death: Head Trauma  
Time Of Death: Nighttime  
Has sustained injury to ankle and torso, signs of struggle. 

"What is this, some type of autopsy report?" Hunter's nose crinkled up at the file.

"It… certainly isn't helpful." Tod shook his head.

"Well… I guess we have to start investigating, huh?" Vince asked nervously.

"Yeah." Andre nodded. "We should start doing that."

As the group started to split off to investigate, Eva gave an empty chuckle. "Fuck… y'know, I thought he was gonna ice me the first night here." She said. "I really did."

"Yeah… you two never really got along." Eric said.

"I know. Of course we didn't. He was Nasty Rat Man." Eva scoffed. "But… fuck, man."

Eric nodded, as he felt something tug at his shoulder. "Let's investigate, Eric." It was Marco, who had a serious look on his face. "Where should we start?"

Eric rubbed his chin. "Hmm, probably with the body itself." He stated.

As the two bent down to look closer at the body, Eric felt as if he had to hold back vomiting as he looked at the note left in Rex's hand. It was messy, scratchy black writing on a torn half-sheet of paper that read the words "I WANT TO DIE."

"So someone's framed this as a suicide." Marco said. "Could've made it less on the nose." He added, squinting at the body.

"Mayhaps." Eric nodded. "Here's something strange though… The file said that he had injuries on his torso, but I don't see any?"

"Ah." Marco said, furrowing his brow. "That's very curious."

"Hmm…" Eric stopped to stare at the body, contemplating for a moment. "What if…" as he thought allowed, he began to turn the body around from its side, his face turning stone cold and his eyes dilating. "Ah, yeah." He said breathlessly as he dropped to his knees.

"Are you okay?" Marco asked, putting a hand on Eric's shoulder.

"Yeah, yeah." Eric said. "More… importantly, I think I've found something."

Indeed, as the two boys saw, there was a thin, small, noticeable mark on Rex's upper back that tore through his shirt and was caked with dried blood.

"It's not deep enough to be lethal." Eric inspected. "But it seems important."

Marco nodded in agreement, giving an inquisitive look about the area. “Anything else here look important?” He asked. “It doesn't look like it.”

“Nope.” Eric sighed. “Onwards we go.”

As the two exited the infirmary and made their way to the next room, a small group of people crowded in the kitchen caught Eric’s eye. Rosetta was the first one to greet the pair as they approached the scene, giving them a cheery wave.

“Eric!! Marco!! Hello!!” she said. “It is good to see you two!”

“Good to see you too.” Marco gave a soft smile. “Did you two find anything?” 

“Ah, yes!” Riley’s voice piped up from where she was crouching on the ground, inspecting a scuffed up note. “This seems to be quite compelling evidence.” She said, picking it up. Andre was looking over her shoulder to read it.

“Well, what does it say?” Eric raised an eyebrow.

“Meet me at the kitchen at 9:30.” Riley read aloud, turning around the half-sheet paper to show the note, the text written in the same rough, all-caps font as the previous.

“I see.” Marco nodded. “It looks like we actually have a lead as to where the crime scene happened.”

“Looks like it.” Andre said. “If I’m rememberin’ correctly, the rules said this place is closed off during Night Time.”

“Interesting…” Marco rubbed his chin. “Do you have any thoughts, Eric?”

“Well, if the murder took place before Night Time, then we have the short timeframe to look out for.” Eric said. “When was the last time he was seen?”

“I do not think any of us saw him after dinner!” Rosetta stated.

“Well… that’s quite a short time to plan a murder, then.” Riley furrowed her brow. 

“That is.” Andre spoke up, raising an index finger. “If you’re assumin’ it wasn’t a suicide.”

“Do you assume it is?” Eric asked.

“I wouldn’t throw it off the table, is all I’m sayin’.” Andre said as he walked off, leaving the group in a strange silence.

“I just can’t believe he’s dead, you know?” Riley suddenly blurted out, her tone faltering as her eyes turned glassy. “He was never… pleasant to be around, but I… I believed I could help everyone get through this without anyone dying! And, clearly I was wrong...” She gave a grim laugh as her gaze stuck to the floor. “What a lousy leader, am I right?”

“Riley, we’re…” Eric put a hand on the woman’s shoulder, as he felt her softly shaking. “We’re all on the same page here. We’re all stuck in the same shitty situation and we have no idea what the fuck is going on. And trying to keep us all orderly and safe in the midst of that? ...No one could ask that from you, Riley. It’s not your fault.”

“But it feels like it is!” Riley ran her hands through her hair. “I had a plan. I thought playing the waiting game would work. But clearly it didn’t, we sat around doing nothing and it’s my fault and maybe if I wasn’t _so fucking stupid_ then someone wouldn’t have to die and-”

“Riley!” Rosetta spoke up, her striking voice cutting through the room and leaving it in silence. “Riley.”

“Wh.” Riley took a deep breath. “What is it?”

Without saying anything, the girl pulled her into a hug, Riley being swept into her tight, soft embrace. “It is not your fault Rex died.” Rosetta said, not letting go.

“How would you-” Riley stammered. “How could you know?”

“Because.” Rosetta smiled, pulling away from the hug. “I just do!” 

“If… if you really believe that, you may.” Riley said with a sigh. “I just. I just wish we weren’t here. I know it’s pointless to say things like that but it’s true. I wish we weren’t here and I wish I had the power to change that.

“I know.” Eric said. “But what we do have power over is solving this trial, so we don’t have to die during this trial. That’s how we can save our lives right now.”

“Yeah…” Riley nodded slowly. “Yeah. You’re right.”

“Well.” Marco clasped his hands together. “I think we’re done here. Everything in the kitchen looks like its in order, no?”

“Yup! Nothing’s missing or misplaced!” Rosetta said with a smile.

“That’s good. We’ll see you at the trial, then, I suppose.” Marco smiled, throwing up a peace sign.

“Yes!” Riley nodded.

\----

The next area the pair decided to investigate was the Game Room, where they found Hunter and Tod present and inspecting the area.

“Hey guys.” Marco said with a surprisingly calm smile. “You two find anything?”

“Nah, doesn’t look like there’s anything here…” Hunter shook his head. “But there’s gotta be something!”

“This area seems quite dry of evidence, yes.” Tod nodded, before turning to Hunter. “Frankly I don’t quite know why you’re so fixated on there being a lead here.”

“Because, like!” Hunter gritted his teeth, his hands slightly shaking. “This place was!! The last time I was really… hangin’ with him, y’know? Before the fight…” 

“And?” Tod raised an eyebrow.

“And… there should be something here, man, I don’t know!” Hunter said, his voice strained. “Things just… work like that! The world works like that! It doesn’t…”

“If it makes you feel better, I’ll take a quick look-through here, but we don’t have time to get hung up places.” Eric said. “I’m sorry, Hunter.”

“Yeah, yeah, of course.” Hunter forced a smile. “Of course, man.”

Eric scanned around the room, looking up and down the various arcade cabinets, until he caught a curious view of the foosball table, as something strange seemed to be hanging just outside of view in the opening where the balls would be stored. 

“Oh shit.” Eric raised an eyebrow. “It looks like you might’ve been on to something.”

“Oh.” Hunter said. “Oh. Oh! Oh! Oh!!” He continued, eyes widening in excitement.

Eric walked over to the table and pulled out the item, which revealed itself to be a small folded up blue cloth.

“Aha! Bingo!” Hunter started cheering, nearly bouncing up and down. “Hunter’s always right babey!!! Hunter’s always-” He abruptly stopped, his face falling nearly instantaneously as he glanced to the side. “Ah. Sorry. That’s. Probably in bad taste.”

“Everything here’s in bad taste, it’s fine.” Eric sighed. “I don’t know about you being always right, but let’s check out what’s in here.” While unfolding the cloth, Eric’s eyes widened and he stumbled backwards as he discovered stains of blood coating the inside.

“Whoa, are you okay?” Marco asked, putting a hand on Eric’s back.

“Yeah, yeah, just…” Eric shrugged. “I don’t even know why I’m surprised.”

“Oh.” Tod said as they saw the cloth Eric was holding. “How peculiar.” 

“Yeah, no shit!” Eric said, nearly dropping the cloth. “Sorry. Sorry. Um,” Eric steadied his breath, fumbling with the cloth the bloody cloth the cloth with blood that _got on his hands there was blood on his hands and_ oh something fell.

Specifically, what appeared to be a third note, on a _third_ half-sheet of paper, fell from the dirtied cloth in his hands. 

Tod picked up the note beginning to read it out loud. “Meet me at the challenge room at… midnight.” They furrowed their brows.

“Ah.” Marco put a finger to his chin. “Hmm. Hmmmmmm.”

“What seems to be the matter?” Tod asked.

“I think Marco is curious about this note since we’ve found a very similar one earlier.” Eric said. “Saying to go to the kitchen at 9:30.” 

“Yes.” Marco nodded. “This is correct. I thi-” 

“Hold on.” Tod raised one finger up. “I believe it is best to save our assumptions and theories for the trial itself, where we all can hear each other's thoughts together. That does make the most sense, no?” 

“Ah, yeah.” Hunter said. “They have a point.”

“Alright. I’ll keep that in mind.” Marco said. “So, there’s no other evidence here, no?”

“Nope, not really.” Hunter said. “But hey, there’s something here!” 

“Yeah, even if it is just another note, which we certainly needed more of.” Eric rolled his eyes. “Although… it doesn’t look like we’ve found many clues in general, have we?”

“Hmm. Hmmmm.” Marco rubbed his temples, squinting his eyes near shut. “No. No we have not.” He said, blinking. “Tod, that note said to go to the Challenge Room, yes? We should probably go there to find evidence.”

“Ah, yeah.” Eric nodded. “Sounds good.” 

\----

Upon entering the Challenge Room, which remained still as perfectly clean as when they last entered, the investigating pair came across Jazmine, Dakota, Malissa, and Vince. 

“Ah, look who decided to show up?” Jazmine turned to face the pair. “What’s up dudes? I’m afraid you’ve showed up late, as me and my gang of cool people have already scanned this place clean of evidence.” 

“Ah, um.” Vince raised his hand. “We found one thing.” Eric glanced from his face to Dakota’s, who’s eyes would not meet his.

“Well, it’s a thing!” Jazmine pouted. “That’s gotta count for something. There’s not a whole lot of things here.” 

“Agreed.” Marco said.

“But look, alright?” Jazmine bent down on the ground. “C’mere. Come closer.” She gestured with her hand to the two of them. “Closer.” 

As Eric and Marco knelt down beside her, Jazmine felt at a particular place on the carpet, a sword narrowly brushing up against her finger. “See?”

“Um.” Eric blinked. “No.”

“Well technically I do see that.” Marco said. “I’m just… unsure of what you’re trying to point out here.” 

Jazmine rolled her eyes, pawing at the ground more as her finger began to get dangerously closer to the blade. “The floor is wet here.”

Eric suddenly reached out to where her hand was, resulting in a resounding shout from Marco to be careful, as his hand landed just next to Jazmine’s. 

“Ah.” Eric said. “So it is.”

“Yeah, but like, what does it _mean_ though?” Jazmine said, scratching her head.

“That’s what we’re having a trial for.” Malissa said, raising up one index finger. “To figure out.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Jazmine grumbled. “Don’t have to smart-alec me.”

“I can’t believe I’m hearing these words.” Vince sighed. 

“Mans is really dead.” Jazmine nodded in solemn agreement.

“...Dead.” Dakota repeated. “He died. He… he’s dead.”

“Yes, dear.” Malissa said sympathetically, rubbing the Actor’s back. “He is.”

“Hh.. Wh- I-” As Dakota started whimpering again, Malissa shushed her. “Don’t worry.” She said in a sweet, soft voice. “I’m here for you. It’s going to be alright.”

Not paying any mind to the two, Marco glanced around the room. “Were there any signs of a scuffle here?” He asked nobody in particular.

“Marco, hold on, give them a moment-”

“We do not have time.” Marco cut Eric off suddenly, speaking in a cold voice. “I am asking an important question.”

“Ah… no.” Vince answered, gesturing vaguely to the entire room. “Only abnormalities we’ve found are the wet spot, and Big Plank I guess.”

“Big Plank is pretty important.” Jazmine stated.

“Very.” Eric nodded in agreement as he paced around the room. He observed the shelves of objects all evenly stacked, and ran his hands along the wooden planks. Their red paint was blotchy and uneven, but it still looked generally the same and in the right position.

“Damn. we’re really not getting any leads here, huh?” Jazmine said. “This is fuckin’ bullshit.”

“I’m sure everything will come together in the trial.” Marco’s voice had returned to its natural, calm tone. “But yes. It’s fucking bullshit.”

“Yeah, I’ll give us some credit. We’re a pretty smart bunch.” Jazmine said with a toothy grin. “‘Cept for that fucker Sam, that creep can suck my dick for all I care.”

“I’m… hmm.” Dakota started mumbling. “Hh… Hhh…”

“Darling, it’s okay.” Malissa said softly. “You don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.”

“O-Okay…” Dakota said, retracting into himself.

“Anyways,” Jazmine blinked. “We should probably-”

**_”ATTENTION.”_ ** The monotone announcer suddenly blared. **_”INVESTIGATION TIME HAS CONCLUDED. ALL KILLING GAME PARTICIPANTS PLEASE REPORT TO THE MONOKUMA ELEVATOR IMMEDIATELY.”_**

__“Oh fuck.” Jazmine said, angrily looking upwards to where she assumed the voice was coming from. “You can’t be serious.”_ _

“I guess that’s that then.” Vince sighed. “We all know where the elevator is, right? It’s at the end of the dorm room hallway. We shou-” The unlucky boy was suddenly cut off by Dakota darting out of the room like a speeding bullet, barely giving the group any time to react. 

'Ah. Uh.” Eric blinked. “I’m gonna go after her. You guys… should probably also come along.” Eric said before running out of the Challenge Room, not waiting for the others to respond. 

In his haste, Dakota was surprisingly the first one to make it to the door of the elevator, with Eric following soon after. 

“Dakota?” Eric said as he slowly approached her. “I-” 

Before he could get another word in, the terrified Actor ran straight into him and clung to his chest, sobbing. “I’m so _scared._ ” She wailed. “Eric, I’m so _scared_ and _I hate it._ " 

“I know.” Eric said softly, gently taking his hand and squeezing it. “I know." 

“And, I just want to know, I just want to _know_ that things will be okay right now and that’s the, that’s the scariest thing!!!!” Dakota nearly screamed. “I don’t know! I don’t know anything about the case _I don’t know anything!!!!_ ” 

Eric nodded silently for a moment as Dakota continued sobbing and crying. “Hey.” He finally said. “Y’know what I know?” 

"Wh-What??” Dakota shakily asked back. 

Eric pulled away from Dakota to look him straight in the eyes. “I know that you can get through this.” he said confidently. “Because I know that we can solve this case.” 

“And how would you know _that?_ ” Eric heard a voice, a very familiar voice, and he turned around to look and- yes, it was definitely Sam’s voice he just heard, as he stood with his trademarked cold, condescending glare. “Simply an honest question.” 

“Oh my god have you been here the whole time?” Eric asked, his face nearly grimacing. 

Sam simply shrugged. “Perhaps.” He said. 

Eric sighed. “I really fucking hate you, dude.” 

“Understandable.” Sam said, as he turned around to see the remaining stragglers from the Challenge Room, along with Riley, Andre, Rosetta, Tod, and Hunter. “So everyone’s here now, I believe?” He asked, pushing up his glasses in _that_ way you know the way. “That’s good. I’m honestly quite rea-” 

“Alright, guys!!!” An excited voice suddenly rang through the hall as Sora dashed to join the group. “We are going to Solve!!! This!!! Case!!!” She said triumphantly. 

“And I’m here too.” Eva said with a grin, following the small girl in a far less enthusiastic manner. “Everyone needs an investigation buddy.” She shrugged, glancing at Sam. “Good to see you, cunt." 

“I’m glad that you two have made your oh-so-necessary dramatic entrance.” Sam scoffed. “Monokuma, we’re ready to begin the trial now.” 

There was no audible response in words to Sam’s statement. Instead, the elevator slowly creaked open, its jaws unhinging sideways to reveal an empty box fit for the lot of them. “Good.” Sam said. 

As the participants of the killing game filed inside, it turned out that the elevator was a snug fit for all fourteen of them. Fourteen. There were fifteen people who woke up on the first day of this game, and fourteen people in the elevator now. Fifteen minus one equals fourteen. One of the people who woke up that day was dead now. 

Ah, well, that was a fact to fully internalize at a later time. Now is the time for murder accusations. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well well, things sure do seem to be heating up now, and we're only just getting started.
> 
> additionally, i have a fun announcement for you readers - you can now discuss the story and experience it with each other live on the new official Danganronpa Forever discord server! https://discord.gg/kDzMEFD it's a bit informal right now, but as the story continues and the audience grows i'm sure there will be more content and community for you all to enjoy :)


	8. Trial of the Ruse, Part One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well folks, we finally made it to the first trial. side-note: trial seating order is in the order they appear here, except with Mona between Tod and Malissa https://i.imgur.com/mkYv7IX.png
> 
> enjoy :)

As the elevator containing the fourteen living participants screeched to a halt that nobody was prepared for, the doors opened and the group was faced with a room lined with fluorescent pink and blue walls and blinking camera lights. In the center of the room stood a circle of sixteen podiums, facing each other with the ends roughly equidistant from length. Sam was the first to walk to the circle and take his place at a podium, with Marco later taking a place to his right, Dakota uneasily following to Marco’s right, and Sora strutting to Dakota’s.

Naturally, the rest of the group hesitantly filled in, with Eric sandwiched between Sora and Vince, when Tod looked to their right and their face turned in disgusted shock. In between their podium and where Malissa’s stood, not a person, but a sign holding up a portrait of Rex in black and white, his face vandalized with two Xs over his eyes and the word “DEAD!!!” crudely written along his mouth. 

“I… that’s…” Tod stammered in wide-eyed horror. “Terrible. That’s horrible.” They finished, regaining their composure and holding their hands together.

“Hold on.” Andre, standing with Eva on his left and Rosetta on his right, looked up curiously across the circle. “There’s another missing spot.” 

Indeed, on Tod’s left, the podium that stood right across from Eric’s was devoid of any semblance of a person.

“Hmm. Indeed.” Sam said, before rolling his eyes. “Bah, I doubt it’ll be important. I don’t know about you lot, but I’m ready to start this trial already.” 

“Well then you’re in luck!!!” A chipper female voice rang throughout the room, as suddenly the circle was engulfed in a thick, white smoke. When the smoke had settled, Eric looked across from him to see a woman with piercing red eyes, a smile on her face and a microphone in her hand, wearing a black dress with crimson highlights, and with hair parted down the middle that was half black and half white, standing right across from him.

“Yes, it’s me, the Ultimate Killing Game Host, here in the flesh!!” Mona cooed, oohing and ahhing herself as she received unpleasant looks from her captives surrounding her. “It’s so nice to finally meet you all in person! Well, almost all of you…” She gave a wicked grin, looking a little ways to her right.

“Ah. Yes.” Sam said. “It’s you.”

“Yeah, what? You thought I’d just let you all run this trial by yourselves?” Mona laughed. “Absolutely no fuckin’ way!!!” She yelled into her screeching microphone, leaving a bassy residue of sound to linger in the room.

“So you’re here to moderate us?” Marco asked.

“Why yes, and mayhaps to lead you astray with my devilish machinations.” The Host winked at nobody in particular. “When you all are confident you’ve come to a decision on the identity of Rex’s killer, we will begin a vote! If the majority votes for the correct culprit, then they get executed while the rest of you pussies get to live another day. B-”

“But if you pick the wrong person, the killer goes free while everyone else dies instead.” Sam said mockingly. “This has been explained countless times. We get it already.”

“Jeez, no need to be a buzzkill.” Mona rolled her eyes. “A little refresher never hurt anybody. But I’ve said all I need to say now! Let’s get debating!!” She finished triumphantly, striking a pose with her finger in the air.

“A-”

“Now, Sam, since you’re so eager to get this trial underway,” Eva cut off the Theorist with a mischievous grin. “Why don’t you start us off?”

“I was _going to._ ” Sam responded through gritted teeth. “Now, it’s fairly obvious to me that Rex was plotting a murder, but ended up committing suicide.” 

“Nevermind I don’t want you to keep talking.” Eva interjected. “That’s the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard.”

“Hold up.” Andre said. “Let the man finish.”

“ _Thank you,_ Andre.” Sam said. “Now, all of us have seen the note in the kitchen, yes? The one that says to meet there at 9:30?”

“Mmhmm!” Sora said, producing said note from her pocket. “You mean this one?”

“Ah, so you just snatched the evidence from the crime scene, didn’t you?” Sam said bitterly. “Like the absolute scoundrel you are.” A vein started to grow on his temple. "But yes. That one."

“I will say, misplacing and stealing evidence _is_ improper conduct for a legitimate trial.” Tod rubbed their chin. “Although, there is nothing proper about this…”

“Nope!” Mona agreed. “We don’t give a fuck about the rules, babey!!! Except for when we do.”

"Hmm, it's the same handwriting as Rex's suicide note..." Hunter thought aloud. “So, Rex tried to lure someone to get killed in the kitchen, then moved to the infirmary to off himself?” He asked. 

“In rudimentary terms, yes.” Sam said.

“Hold on,” Eric said, raising up his finger. “Something isn’t right with that hypothesis.”

“Oh?” Sam turned to look at Eric, wearing a smug smile. “And what would that be?”

“Well, disregarding all the pieces of evidence we found that you neglected to mention,” Eric began, mustering a confident look in his eyes, “Something is fundamentally wrong with the presumption that he died in the hospital.” 

“Ah?” Sam raised an eyebrow. “And what would that be?” 

“The Monokuma File says he died of head trauma.” Eric said. “How could that have happened if he killed himself?”

“Maybe, he lost consciousness from the pills, and then…” Hunter put his finger to his chin. “His head hitting the floor was what killed him!”

“No, tha-”

“In case you don’t remember, the corpse was found lying on its back! Therefore it is wildly unlikely that the fall would cause head injury enough to even cause severe brain damage, let alone kill him.” Sora interjected matter-of-factly. “And even if he did sustain injury to do so, it’s almost guaranteed that the pills he supposedly took would take his life first!”

“You.” Marco’s eyes were wide, giving a curious look. “Know quite a lot about this stuff." Sora nodded wordlessly.

“Also, y’all should get a load of this.” Eva smirked, tossing an object to Eric. Eric caught the small object and immediately froze as he saw it, staring at it in awe.

“Hey, hey, what is that?” Hunter asked.

“It’s… It’s the bottle of pills that was at the scene of Rex’s suicide.” Eric nodded slowly. “It’s definitely the same bottle - same color, size and everything. And… it’s completely full.”

“Yup!” Eva said. “No way you can overdose if you never take any pills, right? So that does it. No way Rex killed himself.”

“Hmm.” Andre stared thoughtfully, for a moment. “Huh. Guess you’re right.” Everyone nodded in vague agreement- or, that is, almost everyone.

“Oh you complete fucking idiots.” Sam shook his head, his breath turning heavy. “You complete fucking idiots.” 

“Yeah, we’re pretty smart.” Eva shrugged. Sam’s fists balled up against his podium as he gave a venomous glare towards her.

“Sam?” Rosetta asked, her voice taking a worried tone as she outstretched a hand to the Theorist. “What has gotten you so upset, friend?”

“Oh, nothing, nothing.” Sam said through a deep breath. “It’s just that these absolute _mongrels_ thought to go around stealing evidence to hoard for themselves and disrupt the case. But it’s fine. I’m fine.”

“Sam, we took evidence from the crime scene with the intention to present it to the whole group to further the case!” Sora said, crossing her arms. “And look! Now we’ve all been able to figure out that the death wasn’t caused by suicide! We’re actually _getting_ somewhere because of the evidence we collected!”

“Indeed. They’ve only been helping us.” Marco agreed, giving a slight split-second glance towards Sora.

Sam didn’t respond, instead shifting uncomfortably on his podium and clearing his throat, which Andre took notice of. “Sam, buddy.” He said. “We’re all workin’ together here. We’re workin’ cuz we gotta stay alive.”

Sam nodded slowly. “Very well. Yes, Rex did not commit suicide. We’ve been able to pass the killer’s first ruse, even if we did so by _cheating,_ but nevertheless.” He sighed, folding his hands together. “Would anybody else like to speak up?” 

“There’s… something I found interesting, yes.” Riley spoke up. “Involving the note saying to go to the kitchen? Do we believe that Rex sent it out, or the culprit?”

"Clearly it was Rex." Sam scoffed. "That sociopath would use any opportunity to kill someone." 

"He literally didn't, but go off I guess." Hunter said with a frown.

"Yeah I... don't think we have enough information to answer that question right now." Marco sighed.

“Hmm, either way, if the crime occurred when someone was lured into the kitchen…” Eric thought aloud. “Then we only have a time-frame of 30 minutes for Rex’s murder.” 

“Ahh, but here’s a problem.” Jazmine said. “Y’see the Monokuma File said he died at nighttime.” 

“Oh, fuck, yeah that’s… a problem.” Eric said, before turning to Mona. “You couldn’t have given us a more precise time of death?”

“Nope!” Mona shook her head. “Giving too much information could compromise the case! And I want to _**watch you all squirm.**_ ”

“Cool.” Eric said. “Thanks for nothing.”

“So… Rex sustained his head injuries sometime between 9:30 and 10:00 PM, and died at some point after night time began?” Hunter asked. “Seems legit.”

“That does appear to be the correct assumption.” Malissa consented.

“Ah, so Rex must have gotten that scar from one of the knives in the kitchen.” Marco said. 

“Uh.” Jazmine raised an eyebrow. “The what?”

“Oh, yeah, when we examined Rex’s body we found a small scar on his back.” Marco explained. “The file _did_ say he sustained injuries to his torso.”

“Fuck, you’re right.” Jazmine nodded. “I should have thought about that.” 

“So obviously there was some sort of struggle between Rex and his killer.” Jazmine stated. “I mean, that’s kind of a given if the dude got stabbed, hit in the head, _and_ twisted his ankle.” 

“Took you a minute to realize that, eh?” Eva scoffed. “But now we’re getting a decent picture of what actually happened.”

“Are we now?” Sam raised an eyebrow.

“Sam, literally nobody asked you to talk.” Jazmine said with a grimace.

A cocky smirk grew across Sam’s face. “It’s an open discussion.” He laughed.

“Yeah but shut up.” Jazmine said.

“Hey!” Rosetta piped up. “Do not be mean!”

“Yeah, maybe we’d be able to get this trial over with quicker if y’all didn’t keep insulting each other.” Andre said. 

Mona gave a haughty life. “Oh _please,_ ” She said. “We’re only just beginning here! It’s all a part of _the experience._ ”

“Mmhmm.” Andre nodded.

“So, anyways.” Jazmine said, clearing her throat. “We got two notes,” 

“Actually. Tod raised an index finger. “We found a third.”

“Ah fuck, we’ll get to that one later.” Jazmine sighed. “Two notes written on half-sheets of paper, one luring someone to the kitchen before night time, and one being a suicidal threat.”

“Oh! Oh Oh!” Rosetta started hopping up and down, coming to an exciting epiphany. “What if the two _half_ sheets of paper…” She held up two fingers in front of her wide-eyed face. “Made one _whole_ sheet of paper!!” She concluded, bringing her two fingers together.

“Glad we’re on the same page.” Jazmine smiled. “So we can assume _someone_ was luring _someone else_ into the kitchen, trying to convince the receiver of the message to kill them by saying they wanted to die.”

“Yes yes!” Rosetta nodded. 

“Please,” Tod said, clearing their throat. “I believe this third note is quite important to the case.”

“Alrighty then. Lay it on us, sport.” Eva said with a wink. “Do y’all have the note with you?”

“We do not, but it said to meet them at the Challenge Room at Midnight.” Eric said confidently. “It was found inside a bloody cloth hidden in the Game Room.” 

“We didn’t see anything like that in the Game Room, and my expert team looked long and hard.” Eva sighed. “You _really_ should’ve brought that note with you, Rick.” 

“Ah…” Eric said in surprised defeat. “Hrm.. well-”

“I don’t mean to throw accusations at you or anything, but if you’re gonna bring in surprise evidence, I’d like to hear some backing to your claims.” Eva said with a bitter smirk. “Cuz otherwise it doesn’t mean jack shit.”

“Did… you look in the foosball table?” Eric asked. “Because we found it in there.”

Eva raised an eyebrow. “The foosball table?”

Sora’s eyebrows perked up as a wave of realization dawned upon her face. “Oh! You mean the little hole where the foosballs go after you score, right? Yeah, we didn’t look in there.”

“Oh. Shit.” Eva said. “Yeah, we didn’t. Huh.”

“Mmhmm.” Eric nodded as he couldn’t help but feel a winning smirk stretch across his face. “And I have Tod, Hunter, and Marco vouching for me as well.” The latter three all nodded in agreement. “Say what you will about accomplices in murders, but four people working to kill just one guy seems ridiculous.”

“Yup!” Mona gave a cartoony thumbs up. “Especially considering only one person can go free!”

Sam glared at the sparkling TV host. “You really are only here to give us pointless exposition, aren’t you?” He grimaced. “What a waste.”

“Shut the fuck up you whore I could kill you in a second.” Mona smiled. 

“Okay, so, what if…” Vince stared thoughtfully. “The killer tried to lure _two seperate people_... for a _double murder!_ ”

“Double murder…” Riley thought aloud. “Is that even possible?”

“Yes.” Sora stated. “I mean, it could be! It wasn’t clarified in the rules!”

Marco turned to Mona, raising an eyebrow in an expectant look. “Well?”

“Ah, yes.” Mona said. “One participant of the Killing Game is allowed to kill up to two persons! However, whether or not that factors into this case…” She snickered deviously. “I’ll never tell.” 

“Enough of this!” Sam barked. “The only thing this ‘host’ has offered us is useless information. And I have had it with your pointless diversions, boy.”

“I am a man.” Marco said.

Sam glared, looking to be thinking very carefully on his next retort. “Ah, well no matter.” He shrugged, pushing up his glasses. “I already know the full truth of this case anyway.” He said with a smirk.

“Whoa!!” Rosetta said in wide-eyed awe. “Really?”

“Bitch, please.” Eva snorted. “You don’t know shit.”

“Hey! Hey!” Rosetta protested. “Let us hear what Sam has to say, okay? It looks like he knows a lot about this case.”

“Mmhmm.” Andre nodded. 

“Alright, so,” Sam clasped his hands together. “It’s obvious that Rex was murdered in the Kitchen between 9:30 and 10:00, and the culprit planned to kill another person at Midnight in the Challenge Room, correct?’

"Hold on." Marco said. "I thought you believed that Rex was the one who wrote the notes."

Sam rolled his eyes. "Well, clearly the evidence now shows otherwise."

"Mm." Marco nodded. "Okay."

“Still, that… sounds about right, actually.” Riley said. “Personally, I believe the killer must have started scheming this double murder plot after Monokuma cleaned the Challenge Rooms around 4:00 PM.”

“Monokuma will, indeed, 100% completely fix or clean up a room if they find it necessary!” Mona clarified. 

“I see.” Eric nodded. “And how do you know it was cleaned at 4?”

“Well, ah, I don’t.” Riley said sheepishly. “But it was around that time that we discovered it clean. Sam was the first person to point it out, and him, Dakota and I investigated.” Dakota, who had up until that point disappeared into his podium, gave a small, weak nod.

Eric began to nod absentmindedly, when suddenly an alarm bell rang off in his head in realization. No. Something wasn’t right with this. Something wasn’t right with this at all.

“Riley, was Sam ever accounted for during Lunch?” Eric asked.

“Hmm? No, he wasn’t.” Riley shook her head.

“No one…” Dakota began. “No one knows where he went after the… challenge… Oh.” Her eyes widened as she inevitably came to the same conclusion that Eric had.

“Oh, please.” Sam scoffed. “It’s like you buggers are being paid to throw unfounded accusations my way.”

“Neither Mona nor Monokuma never explicitly confirmed that the Challenge Room was cleaned by show administration.” Eric stated. “But she did just say that if found necessary, a room will be cleaned or fixed by Monokuma _100%._ ”

Sam raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“ _The broken plank in the ground._ When we entered the Challenge Room at 6:00 PM, everything was fixed and cleaned except for that.” Eric said. “Monokuma, or someone else with full control over the facility, would have the ability to fix that. But someone like you… wouldn’t.”

“And the only reason you’d need that…” Dakota’s eyes widened in horror. “Is so that you could _**plot a murder!**_ ”

There was a wave of silence in the room, as Dakota’s words hung in the air. All eyes, even Mona’s, latched onto Sam, waiting to hear is next retort. Or anything at all, really.

Finally, Sam began to slowly clap his hands, giving a defeated glare to the people surrounding him. “Very well.” Sam said. “You’ve solved the culprit’s second ruse.”

**Author's Note:**

> join the discord server, structured for liveblogging and discussion: https://discord.gg/kDzMEFD


End file.
